Minestrone, History, Recipe and Variations

Food & Drink - Recipes

Minestrone, History, Recipe and Variations

Hot Minestrone: Wikimedia Comons

There are different explanations about the origins and meaning of the word Minestrone – both are mentioned in this article as no one seems sure where the truth lies.
Minestrone comes from “Minestra” meaning soup, and the suffix –one makes it big soup. The origins of the word are Latin “minestrare” meaning to serve, generally food and drink, so it is a mix of “served soup”.

The word comes from “Minestra”, meaning rice, pasta or vegetables served in broth. You can also have “Minestrina con pastina” which is little minestra with little pasta, in other words small ingredients added or minestrone which has large ingredients. These are normal Italian suffixes,” –ina” is a small something and “–one” is a large something. Minestrone not only has large pieces of vegetables, but often has one of the large types of pasta added too.

Minestrone originated in the Roman Empire, long before it became the Roman Empire. A soup is mentioned in an old cookbook from 30AD, Marcus Apicius's De Re Coquinaria, that contains most of the ingredients of the more modern minestrone. As explorers travelled the world and more ingredients became available these were added over time, and it is believed that this soup was simply made with whatever vegetables were present at the time and even in many cases using leftovers. For that reason there is not really a traditional recipe.

Ingredients, chopped

Minestrone with pasta

200g cannellini, borlotti or kidney beans - fresh, or dried
2 potatoes, peeled
2 courgettes
2 onions
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
olive oil
1-2 tomatoes, blanched (optional)
bacon, ham or other meat, (optional)

This makes an average soup but adding more of any ingredient will give more of that taste.

Method

Minestrone with meat

Lightly fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil and add this all to the chopped vegetables. Add water or stock and gently simmer for anything over 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
Italians feel this needs cooked for hours on end to make it taste better, but this will remove most of the goodness from the vegetables and to be honest I can not tell the difference between 30 - 45 minutes and four hours cooking time.

Variations

Minestrone Milanese

As there is no fixed recipe you can add or remove any vegetables you wish and make this different each time you make it.
You can add any other vegetables such as aubergine and pumpkin, and herbs like parsley, oregano and basil. A drop of curry can offer a tasty variation while chillies make it hotter.
Adding pasta makes this more filling and is a good hearty winter meal.

Minestrone alla Genovese is the version used in Liguria, and it includes pesto.
Minestrone alla Milanese has added sage, cabbage, peas, cheese and rice.

Minestrone alla Friulanaextra ingredients are barley, lard and pork.

Article © Jill Vance 2012

To see similar products simply click any link above.