Green Soup (Minestrone Verde)
Tell kids they're having 'spring vegetable soup with pesto genovese' for tea and they'll throw a wobbly. Offer them 'green soup with shells' and they'll be impressed. Funny creatures, kids! They can eat something week in week out for months and then, out of the blue, push it away and refuse to admit they've ever eaten it in their lives before.
You will need:
- 1 onion, peeled
- 3-4 sticks celery
- 300g greens, cime di rapa, Swiss chard or spring cabbage
- 2-3 courgettes
- a good handful of freshly podded peas
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1.5 litres boiling water
- Maldon sea salt and black pepper
- a handful of gnocchietti sardi or conchigliette (small shell-shaped pasta)
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh pesto (see below)
- freshly grated pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano
Get the vegetables washed and all chopped fairly equally in size. Soften the onion and celery in the oil until they are translucent.
Always add the vegetables you are using in the order that they need to cook. Basically the harder ones take longer. So, add the chard and chopped greens, pour over the boiling water and cook for 20 minutes or so until the vegetables are tender.
Add the courgettes, then finally the fresh peas. If some of the greens are very young they can be separated from the tougher stalks and added later on in the cooking. This will keep them brighter and preserve some of the vitamins in them. Season the soup well.
At this stage, I usually use a hand blender to whizz half of the soup. This leaves some of the vegetables chunky in a thick broth. Stir in the pasta and add a little more hot water if the soup is too thick, simmering for the last 10 minutes. Once the pasta is cooked, adjust the consistency and check the seasoning again. Stir the pesto into the soup with a good grating of pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano just to finish it off.
Wonderful!
Quick Pesto
You can make up a quick and easy home made pesto for this soup using a mortar and pestle.
Grind the leaves from a generous handful of fresh basil, ½ clove of garlic and a sprinkling of sea salt. Gradually add enough extra virgin olive oil to make a rough paste. Check the flavour.
A more detailed pesto recipe can be found with the Oricchiette pasta recipe.
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