The Greatest Minestrone
Prep
15m
Cook
50m
Total
65m
Bigly says
Sit. Pour yourself a coffee. We're doing this right. Minestrone. MINESTRONE! An old Italian woman cornered me once on a street in Lucca — actual Lucca, not the Lucca in your imagination — grabbed me by the elbow, and made me promise, on my honor, to make minestrone HER way for the rest of my natural life. I promised. I kept it. That's what you're getting today. The minestrone that ends the conversation. Other minestrones see this one coming down the street and they cross over. They KNOW.
Most minestrone in this country is a tragedy. A pale, thin, frightened broth with three nervous beans and a piece of celery that has clearly given up on its dreams. Wet sadness on a plate. People order it at chain restaurants, they take one sip, and you can see them visibly age — I have SEEN this, in person, with my own eyes, on multiple occasions. A disgrace to minestrone. Most cookbook authors won't say it because they're trying to be polite. I am not trying to be polite. I am trying to be CORRECT.
Mine is thick. Mine is rich. Mine has soffritto cooked low and slow until your kitchen smells like a Tuscan village at dinnertime. Mine has the parmesan rind in the pot — and the rind is the whole ballgame, the rind is the SECRET, the rind is what separates a real soup from warm dishwater with vegetables drowning in it. Then the ditalini, the little tube pasta, beautiful, perfect, the right shape for the spoon. Then the beans, the greens, and at the end a serious pour of the good green olive oil and a heavy hand of parmesan. People will eat this and weep. Tough guys. Tears in the eyes. It's a thing that happens in my kitchen. Tremendous.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup, plus more for servingolive oil
- 1 largeyellow onion, diced
- 2 mediumcarrots, diced
- 2 stalkscelery, diced
- 4 clovesgarlic, minced
- 4 ozpancetta, diced (optional)(skip for vegetarian, but the soup KNOWS)
- 2 tbsptomato paste
- 1 (28 oz) cancanned whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 8 cupslow-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 piece (about 2-3 inches)parmesan rind(the MVP, do not skip, this is the move)
- 2bay leaves
- 4fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 mediumYukon gold potato, diced
- 1 mediumzucchini, diced
- 1 cupgreen beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 (15 oz) cancanned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 oz) cancanned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 3/4 cupditalini pasta
- 2 cupslacinato kale or savoy cabbage, shredded
- to tastekosher salt
- to tasteblack pepper
- 1/2 cupgrated parmesan, for serving
- as neededgood extra-virgin olive oil, for finishing(the green peppery kind, not the pale stuff in the clear bottle)
Steps
- 1
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and a generous pinch of salt. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 10-12 minutes until very soft and sweet — do not let it brown.
- 2
If using pancetta, add it now and cook 4-5 minutes until the fat renders. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.
- 3
Stir in the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes until it darkens and smells rich.
- 4
Add the crushed tomatoes with their juices, stock, parmesan rind, bay leaves, and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer.
- 5
Add the potato and simmer 10 minutes until just tender at the edges.
- 6
Add the zucchini, green beans, cannellini, and kidney beans. Simmer another 10 minutes.
- 7
Add the ditalini and cook according to package directions (usually 8-10 minutes) until just shy of al dente.
- 8
Stir in the kale or cabbage and cook 3-4 minutes more until wilted and tender.
- 9
Fish out the parmesan rind, bay leaves, and thyme stems. Taste and adjust salt and pepper generously.
- 10
Ladle into bowls. Drizzle each portion with a serious glug of finishing olive oil and a heavy snowfall of grated parmesan. Crusty bread on the side.
One more thing
This soup is better the next day. Better still the day after that. The pasta soaks up the broth, the beans get creamy, the whole thing becomes more itself — like a fine wine, except a wine in a pot, with beans, that you can eat for lunch at your desk. You make this on a Sunday, you eat it all week, and you forget the corner deli ever existed. The deli will wonder where you went. Let them wonder. The minestrone has you now. Tremendous.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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