Minestrone — Vegetable, Bean and Pasta Soup

What you’ll need

Ingredients

Ingredient amounts make 4 servings. Nutrition below is for one serving.

• 400 g White beans, fully cooked without salt, drained
• 120 g Small egg-free wheat pasta, dry
• 150 g Onion, peeled
• 150 g Carrot, trimmed
• 100 g Celery stalks, trimmed
• 250 g Zucchini with skin, trimmed
• 400 g Unsalted tomato passata or puree
• 100 g Fresh spinach, washed and dried
• 25 g Olive oil
• 8 g Garlic, peeled and minced
• 10 g Fresh basil leaves, washed and dried
• 4 g Fine salt
• 1 g Ground black pepper
• 1200 ml Water, plus extra for washing or soaking as directed

Make it

Instructions

1. 1

   Use 400 g fully cooked unsalted beans weighed after draining, not dry beans. Wash vegetables, dice onion, carrot, celery and zucchini, and chop garlic.

2. 2

   Heat all oil in a pot. Soften onion, carrot and celery for 8 minutes, then add garlic for 30 seconds. Add passata, zucchini, water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer 15 minutes.

3. 3

   Add beans and dry small pasta. Simmer for the packet pasta cooking time, usually 8–12 minutes, stirring so it does not stick. Add spinach for the last 3 minutes. Add a little hot water if needed; keep all the broth.

4. 4

   Stir in basil off the heat. Divide all solids and broth equally among four bowls. Pasta thickens leftovers as it stands; loosen with water when reheating and count any cheese separately.