…better than ‘Leftover Soup’ that is.
I don’t try to hide the fact that I’m not Summer’s greatest fan (the season that is, not some girl named Summer, just so you know). I much prefer Autumn (again, the season). I LOVE Autumn!!!
I thought it was the colour of the leaves or the crisp air, maybe football season starting, or shipping the kids back to school. After last week however, I realized it’s mostly the Minestrone.
A generic term for such a wide range of preparations, there are as many Minestrone’s as there are Nonnas. Many people will have different ideas and interpretations but I’m basically speaking of a rich and hearty bean and vegetable soup. Too thick to be brothy, too thin to be creamy, and too porky to be resistible.
Last week at The Good Earth Autumn delecTable dinner I made my vision of the perfect Minestrone and am both thrilled with its reception and honoured by the requests for the recipe. Now all I have to do is figure out the recipe.
The reason there are so many variations of Minestrone is that it literally was an end of the week ‘move it or lose it’ style of dish. Always based on what vegetable and meat scraps were available and usually tomatoes, greens, and beans and/or pasta for ‘length’. I basically had the charge of making a leftover soup from scratch without the benefit of leftovers which, by the way, was a fun if not slightly stressful challenge.
So here we go, the following is my best attempt to summarize a number of steps, hints, options and alternatives in order to come up with a sort of ‘bring it on’ style recipe for the bestest soup in all the land. Judy, this Minestrone’s for you.
(Regrettably the disclaimer took me so long that I’ve Really got to go to bed, I’ll have to get to the actual recipe tomorrow. I’m Sorry)
Sorry again. Chow!