This is another very simple dish. I intended to post a Mediterranean recipe, specifically hummous, but that entails tahini or sesame seed paste. Hummous is not very difficult to make but it’s not a one-pot dish. I’ll post that sometime in the future. In the meantime, I’d like to cater to the neophyte cooks reading this blog while still keeping with the Mediterranean theme. So friends, let’s start with our lesson for the day (tee hee hee, once a teacher, forever one!).

Soups are an important part of any cuisine. Can one imagine Filipino cooking without sinigang? Thai without thom yum soup? Chinese without nido soup? French without hearty consommés?

Italians also have a variety of soups, one type of which is the minestrone. In Italy, the emphasis is on simplicity and freshness. This dictates using ingredients in season, fresh from the marketplace (oohhh!!! I can almost smell the produce in the fruterias, ayayay!), or the farms, if possible. Since Italians are also very regionalistic, there is no standard recipe. Each one varies from region to region or from home to home, which is so like us Filipinos!

Each region has various versions of minestrone, depending on the season, and on what vegetables are on the market. The recipe below is one of the most generic. I found it some years ago in one of my mother’s cookbooks. Most, if not all, ingredients can be found in any marketplace or grocery. Vegetables have to be chopped into uniform sizes to make sure they cook evenly. Chopping for this recipe means into approximately 15 cm (half inch) cubes for the hard vegetables and finer for the leaves.

Minestrone

2 tbsp cooking oil (extra virgin olive oil preferred but not necessary)
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 celery sticks, chopped
1 leek, sliced
5 cloves garlic, crushed (I use infinitely more)
125 g (4 oz) green cabbage, shredded (approx one small head)
bouquet garni (can’t find this in the Philippines, so I substituted lots of herbs like oregano, bay leaves, rosemary, thime, etc)
2.25 litres (4 pints) water
250 g tomato sauce (choose a non-acidic brand, I use Del Monte)
4 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley
50 g (2 oz) wholewheat pasta, ditali or macaroni is the best choice
salt and pepper
grated Parmesan cheese (or Cheddar)

  1. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onions and fry until softened.
  2. Add the carrots, celery, leek and garlic, cover and cook gently under very low fire for approx 10 minutes.
  3. Add the remaining ingredients, with salt and pepper to taste, and bring to the boil (high fire).
  4. Cover and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes until all vegetables are tender. Remove the bouquet garni (if you’re using it, I don’t care to fish out the bay leaves, oregano, etc.)
  5. Pour into a warmed soup tureen and serve with the cheese sprinkled on top.

Herbed or garlic bread sticks make for an excellent partner. Good for around 8 servings.