Minestrone Souper Soup!

ayyyoooo. So today I'm doing a post on a classic italian dish-minestrone soup. This specific recipe is great because everything is made in one pot from beginning to end even though there are multiple steps! I made up this recipe when I was about 11, so I've been making the soup for about 7 years now. It's a family favorite and I've been wanting to share it with you guys but since its getting warmer, I havent had too many opportunities to make it. But alas, my grandfather had a cold this past week, so I made him a batch and decided to take the opportunity to use it as a blog post for all of my lovely readers. 

First, you want to slice up an onion into... I guess you could call them discs, and then slice them in half like shown above. They look big now, but remember that by the time the soup is served, they'll be tender and this size will be perfect to eat. 

Add half of a stick of butter and saute them up in a stockpot type of pot. Sort of like you are going to carmelize them. Cover them, but leave a little space, as if the cover isn't on all the way so that steam can escape. You don't want them cooking too fast since were going to be making a soffritto.

While youre onions are cooking, evenly chop up carrots and celery. I used about 4 stalks of celery, and an equal amount of carrots, which happened to be about 4 as well. This is called an italian trinity, or a soffritto. Just like in my braised short ribs dish...remember? Now we're getting somewhere! Anyways, let these cook up until tender. 

While they are cooking, you want to shred up a cabbage. You'll need about a cup to two cups, depending on much you like cabbage. Remember though, cabbage cooks down, just like spinach so what looks like a lot when you add it, will end up being about half of the amount when it's fully cooked. A sinple way to do this is to cut off one part of it, usually the top so that instead of being round now its flat, and just chop equal amounts off. Then just shred it in your hands. At the same time, you want to dice up about 3 potatoes. 

Once your soffritto is tender, add your chicken broth, along with the cabbage and potatoes. I used two of these cans, which contain about 6 cups each. 

Now, add all of the following things, mix it well, and then bring it to a light boil:

-Cannellini beans, which are white kidney beans.

-Red kidney beans

-Crushed tomatoes

-Garbanzo beans, which are just chick peas. 

After it has boiled, taste a little bit of the broth, and if you think that it needs to be a little bit more 

"tomato-y", add a can of diced tomatoes. Finally, let it boil for about na hour, until the cabbage looks all cooked down, and the flavors have melded together. It should look something like the picture below. 

Boil up some type of small macaroni, such as ditalini, add it right into the pot, and youre good to go. It's also great if you top it with a little bit of grated parmesan cheese and a splash of olive oil before serving. Try it out and let me know how you like it!

Until next time,

K