Minestrone, a soup full of vitamins

Minestrone, a soup full of vitamines

Now that winter is coming, its a good thing to stock up on some vitamins. And what better way to do it with a good cup of soup. But what is minestrone. It's a thick soup with all kinds of vegetables. Every region (probably every village) has it's own way of making it. I'll teach you how my family makes it.

You start with the ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 whole onion
• 1 zucchini
• 2 potatoes
• a can of beans (white or the burlotti beans)
• a can of pelati (pealed tomatoes)
• stick of butter

Before we start cooking the vegetables, we need to chop them to a size that is not to small and not to big. To small and they'll disappear in your soup, to big and it will take a lot of time to cook them.

Once you've chopped your veggies, it's time to take a big pot (preferably +4 L) and put it on a high heat. Put in your stick of butter and let it melt. Now you take your can pelati and put it all in. Once you've crushed the tomatoes you can put in your veggies (except for the beans). Let them sweat for a few minutes while you stir everything gently. Now you can add water, about 1,5 L or enough so your veggies are covered with water and wait for the water to boil.

When you notice that your soup is boiling, you bring down the heat to a minimum and let it simmer. Once you feel that the veggies are almost  done, you add the beans (the whole can, even the moist). Leave it until all veggies are cooked. At the end, season with salt and pepper.

You can add some pastina if you want, it will make the soup a lot thicker, but i leave it up to you.

Enjoy!