Winter Minestrone

Perfect for a cold winter day – lots of warmth and vitamins contained in this soup!  You can add some chopped pancetta and cook it with the vegetables in stage 2. This will add an extra savoury note but of course the dish is then not suitable for vegetarians.  If you have any parmesan rind – the hard/waxy bit of parmesan that you don’t grate (I keep these in the freezer) you can add these to the soup as it cooks, for extra flavour.  Not essential though.

1. To prepare the vegetables, peel the carrots and stringy side of the celery and remove the skin from the onion and coarsely chop them all.
2. Put the olive oil into a large, heavy bottomed saucepan and cook the carrots, onion and garlic over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring periodically to make sure that they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. (Add the pancetta at this stage if you are using it).
3. While the vegetables are cooking, wash and drain the cavolo nero and spinach.  Remove and discard the central white spine of the cavolo nero and roughly chop the green leaves.  Peel the garlic cloves.
4. Add the tinned tomatoes and the peeled garlic cloves to the pan and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes. Then add the cannellini beans, 2/3 of the spinach, 2/3 of the cavolo nero, the stock and (if using) parmesan rind(s). Bring the soup up to a simmer and cook at a simmer for 25 minutes.  Then add the final 1/3 of the cavolo nero and spinach and cook for a final minute or two just to blanche them but not too long that they lose their colour.  Remove any parmesan rinds.
5. Serve with crusty bread and a grating of parmesan over the top.