Michele Chiappa's Minestrone Soup
Welsh-Italian cook Michela Chiappa is in the kitchen to warm the whole family up with her deliciously simple homemade minestrone soup.
Minestrone Soup recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Minestrone Soup:
1 onion
1 beef tomato
2 celery sticks
2 carrots
1 courgette
1 sweet potato
Small butternut squash
Glug of olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 organic chicken or vegetable stock cube
Handful pastina pasta - small star shaped pasta,or broken spaghetti
freshly grated parmesan cheese and griddled bread, to serve
For the Pesto:
50g fresh basil leaves
50g pine nuts
50g freshly grated pecorino or parmesan
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and crushed
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Method:
1. Wash all the vegetables and then top and tail - do not peel, and place into a roasting tray.
2. Cover with olive oil and roast in the oven at 200c, gas mark 6 for 40-60 minutes or until tender and golden.
3. Remove the tray of roasted vegetables from the oven and place into a large saucepan with a splash of water. Blitz with a stick blender until smooth.
4. Add the vegetable or chicken stock and season.
5. Bring to the boil over a high heat, then reduce to a simmer.
6. Add the pasta and cook for 5 minutes or according to packet instructions.
7. Make the pesto by blitzing the basil, pine nuts, grated pecorino or parmesan, lemon zest and juice, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a sterilized jar and top with olive oil.
8. Griddle some bread of your choice and rub with a clove of garlic.
9. Serve the soup into bowls with a spoon of pesto and lots of pecorino or parmesan sprinkled over the top and the griddle bread on the side.