On-demand minetsrone soup, that's what life is like in the big city in the new millenium. I had some stock on hand, and my wife harvested some fresh vegetables from our garden plot. Together, we made savoury minetsrone.
Minestrone isn't a complicated soup, it's one of those things that you throw together out of left-overs, so there isn't a specific recipe. You do need chicken stock, tomatoes, and some other vegetables.
JSVB Post #80 details how you can make stock. Although my recipe is for beef, all you need to do replace beef bones with left-over chicken carcasses to get chicken stock. Click here to learn more about my stock.
Heat your stock (at least 4-8 cups) to simmer in a large pot. While you do this, you can chop up your vegetables. I used carrots, onions, celery, cabbage, and green beans. Fry these under medium heat for about ten minutes in a pan with about a tablespoon of oil. Remove from the pan (dump them into the stock), then chop 6-8 Roma tomatoes and a clove of garlic. Fry these as well. Fry the tomatoes until the liquid starts to boil out and the flesh breaks up easily when stirred, probably around 20 minutes. Throw all of the vegetables into the stock. I added about 1/2 cup of pizza sauce as well. I had some home-made stuff left-over, but I figure you can use store bought sauce if you watch the salt content.
Season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, oregano, rosemary, and sugar. I'd estimate maybe a teaspoon of each, but add more or less according to taste. Finally, add some good quality basalmic vinegar, which is my secret ingredient. Again, maybe around a teaspoon, although it's easy to overdo basalmic vinegar, so be careful.
Simmer for an hour or so. If you want pasta in your soup right away, throw in some shells about half an hour before you are done simmering. If you wish to serve the soup later, boil up the shells in fresh water and put the cooked, strained, and cool-rinsed noodles in the soup when you want to serve it. Otherwise, the pasta will overcook.
Mangi, Mangi!
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