minestrone soup

I used to love this when I was a kid: I remember picking out the pasta and the smell of the soup as it simmered away on the stove. You can add all sorts of things to minestrone, various beans and whatever vegetables and my mother used to add cocktail sausages, sliced about two centimetres in length. We chatted on the phone as I watched the pot simmering; "don't forget the tomato paste!" she exclaimed, when I listed the ingredients I had put in the pot and failed to mention it.



minestrone soup

ingredients:
brown onion (diced)
stick of celery (diced)
1 medium carrot (diced)
1 medium potato (peeled + diced)
4 tomatoes (diced)
half a zucchini (diced)
1 cup spiral pasta (use gluten free pasta if you're cooking gluten free)
can of kidney beans
oregano
1 cup peas
handful of basil leaves (shredded)
1 can tomato soup
2 tsp tomato paste
1 garlic clove (minced)


method:

Fry the onion and the celery in a little vegetable oil until both start to soften. Add the garlic, carrot and the potato, continue frying for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, a shake of oregano, and fry for two or three minutes before adding the tomato soup and the tomato paste. Stir, then cover. Leave to simmer for about twenty five minutes.

In the meantime, cook the pasta in the usual manner.

When everything in the soup pot is smelling delicious and looks just about done, add the peas and the kidney beans (drained). Simmer for four or five more minutes, then stir through the basil and the pasta and remove from heat. Leave to sit for five minutes. Serve with delicious bread, or on its own.