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!

Spaghetti broccoli, fast and simple!

Spaghetti broccoli, fast and simple!

Something you can make if you don't have the time to cook is spaghetti broccoli. In spite of the other recipes on my blog, this is not one of my grandmothers. It's a recipe that we got from my girlfriends grandmother.

It's a very simple dish. You just need a few ingredients:

• 2L broth (or 2L of water with 2 broth cubes)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• dried chilly flakes
• 1 bunch of broccoli
• 1 laurel leaf
• 125 gr bacon blocks (optional)
• Parmesan cheese

You start by cleaning your broccoli. Only use the florets of the broccoli. Put them in a big pot with your broth, chilly flakes, laurel leaf and garlic. Now bring it al to a boil. Once your broth is boiling you can add your spaghetti. The rest depends on the brand and type of spaghetti you use. We usually use spaghetti number 12 from "De Cecco". These will need about 12 minutes to cook. Don't forget to season with salt and pepper. The next part is optional but it gives an extra flavor to your dish. 

Let's prepare our bacon. Very simple... You take a pan, heat it and put your bacon in and season it with peper (i use salty bacon so no need to put salt on it). Leave it until your bacon is brown and crispy.

Now take a deep plate (like a soup plate) and put your spaghetti in it, fish out some broccoli florets and add your bacon. Finish it all with some broth and Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy this quick and easy pasta dish and don't forget to follow me on instagram!