This incredibly hearty winter soup falls somewhere between a soup and a stew.The texture and flavor are amazing—it’s filled with chunky vegetables, pasta,beans, and spinach. Pesto and Parmesan swirled in at the end make it even better. I serve it in big shallow bowls with garlic bruschetta on top.
Serves 6 to 8
Good olive oil
4 ounces pancetta
1/2 -inch-diced
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
2 cups (1/2-inch) diced carrots (3 carrots)
2 cups (1/2-inch) diced celery (3 stalks)
2 1/2 cups (1/2-inch) diced peeled butternut squash
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
26 ounces canned or boxed chopped tomatoes, such as Pomi
6 to 8 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade (page 62)
1 bay leaf Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked small pasta, such as tubetti (see note)
8 to 10 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup good dry white wine
2 tablespoons store-bought pesto
Garlic Bruschetta (recipe follows)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
To cook the pasta, put 1 cup of pasta into a large pot of boiling salted water. Cook according to the directions on the package, drain, and set aside.
You can make this soup ahead and reheat it before serving. It will need to be reseasoned.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy potor Dutch oven. Add the pancetta and cook over medium-low heat for6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Add theonions, carrots, celery, squash, garlic, and thyme and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, until thevegetables begin to soften.
Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken stock, the bay leaf, 1 table-spoon salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil, thenlower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, until thevegetables are tender.
Discard the bay leaf. Add the beans and cooked pasta and heat through. the soup should be quite thick but if it’s too thick, add morechicken stock. Just before serving, reheat the soup, add the spinach,and toss with 2 big spoons (like tossing a salad). Cook just until theleaves are wilted. Stir in the white wine and pesto. Depending on thesaltiness of the chicken stock, add another teaspoon or two of saltto taste. Serve large shallow bowls of soup with a bruschetta on top.Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, drizzle with olive oil, and serve hot.
Garlic Bruschetta
1 baguette
Good olive oil
1 garlic clove, cut in half lengthwise
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Slice the baguette at a 45-degree angle in 1/2 inch-thick slices. Brushboth sides of the bread with olive oil and bake for 6 minutes, untillightly toasted. Take the slices out of the oven and rub the surface of each one with the cut clove of garlic.
Copyright © 2012 Ina Garten.
Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust by Ina Garten
Published: Oct 30, 2012 by Clarkson Potter
ISBN: 9780307464873
Price: $40.00
Chapters-Indigo
Amazon
Just made this recipe today. It is delicious and as the Contessa says “fool proof” Her new
cookbook, “FOOLPROOF”, is also good.
Fantastic!!! So glad to hear it turned out to be fool proof AND delicious.
Made this tonight and subbed turkey bacon for the pancetta. It turned out A-Mazing!! My 16 year old, McDonald’s loving, son, loved it as well. Will definitely make this again and again
Amazing, Amy!! That is so great to hear that your teenage son loved it too. Looks like this one is a keeper!
So glad to hear that it worked well with turkey bacon subbed in. I can’t eat pork as it makes me violently ill, so hearing that it worked well with the t.bacon makes me so happy! thanks for posting your reply.
I’ve found that most recipes work really well with either turkey bacon or chicken bacon substituted. Great to hear this one is no different!
Is there something else you can use if you don’t have a dutch oven?
Hi Dina,
Any heavy stock pot will work fine for this recipe. I don’t have a dutch oven either, so I use a big soup pot.
Hope that helps!
Cass
I just made a vegan version of this and it turned out great! Substitute vegan sundries tomato sausage for the pancetta and vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. If you’re a vegetarian this does the trick! Tastes great and really hearty!
Love a good minestrone!
My whole family loved this!! It was perfect on a cold winters day!!!
Just made this and it was a hit!! Soooo good – didn’t change a thing.
Found this on Pinterest- made very few adjustments for what we had in the house. Biggest difference- we don’t eat pork, so we left out the pancetta. Homemade chicken broth and garden/fresh oregano are a must. Definitely a pin win!
OMG, lovely recipe! I did Turkey Bacon instead of Panchetta like someone suggested. I’m not a great cook, nor am I good at dicing things, but this was so worth the effort! Thank you for sharing this wonderful soup!
Looks delish. I’m going to make it next month for my parenting group. Wish there was a way to easily print out the recipe, though.
Made this for dinner tonight. Sooooo good and super easy. I made the pasta and added the soup to that so I could freeze the remaining minestrone in batches.
I decided to make this over the weekend as I had a husband with ‘man-flu’ and figured a bit of kitchen time would be my salvation. What a delicious, hearty soup. The ticket for cold dark winter days. I will definitely be making it again!
Hey, if you can please a guy with “man-flu” with this recipe, then it’s definitely a keeper!
I made this last weekend, it was so good! Worth the chopping!
i substituted 16 bean mix and ham (didn’t have the pancetta or white beans in), and this soup was really delicious, definitely make again…and again lol thanks
Check out my latest post about comfort foods where I include this recipe!
http://whitneygoller.blogspot.com/2013/02/home-is-here.html
whitney goller