Having recently returned from Italy, I had such an eat-ploration that it would be remiss if I didn’t share some new recipe I garnered from the local Bogliascans.
For this week’s CSA, there were more greens than the last few times. So a quick way to go through all the vegetables was to make soup! Fortunately, Liguria is known for a special type of minestrone (you don’t need to say minestrone soup…that’s like say “soup soup”). This minestrone is entirely vegetable with signature Genovese pesto.
Ingredients
- Kohlrabi: 1 piece
- Squash: 1 pieces
- Fava Beans: 1 pound
- Swiss Chard: 0.5 pound
- Yellow Onion: 2 pieces
- Pasta (your choice): .5 cup
- Sea Salt: 1 tbsp
For pesto, you can use ready-made or make your own. It’s simply basil, olive oil, garlic, pesto, and parmesan cheese, sprinkled with salt. I’ve made it so often that I find you should make it to your taste. Ligurians love it very salty and I’m not too partial to salt.
Here’s a recipe to follow if you’re not comfortable trying it out on your own.
Directions
1. Clean the vegetables as much as possible. You don’t want dirt in your soup.
2. Chop all the vegetables in edible size.
3. Add all chopped vegetables in a pot and add 10 cups of water.
4. When water starts to boil, add salt.
5. Cook for an hour or until all the vegetables are soft.
6. Serve immediately with a dollop of pesto and some bread, preferably focaccia bread.
If you don’t serve the soup immediately, it’s best to separate the solid from the liquid. The pasta will get soggy and disintegrate before you have a chance to eat it.
If you don’t use up all the liquid soup, use it to make risotto or any other pasta dish because it’s now essentially a vegetable broth!
