Minestrone Soup

First, let me thank eRecipeCards for following this site!

Today I realized there are only 5 more weeks with Jamie Oliver over at I*Heart*Cooking*Club

The 6 months dishing up with these chefs always goes by so quickly. I am so very curious to see which female chef will up for the vote soon. I know I enjoyed cooking with Nigella and Giada…..so many possibilties. But…for now, Jamie is still the star and this week’s theme is Soup, Salad and Sammies.

Perhaps I am hoping to lure the cooler temps that come with Fall weather as my pick this week is - ……Minestrone Soup from The Naked Chef cookbook. This particular version was featured in a 2010 publication of Shape magazine.




Ingredients

10 large ripe plum tomatoes (or two 14 oz cans of tomatoes, drained)
3 medium carrots
2 medium leeks
5 ribs of celery
2 red onions
1 cabbage
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 heaped Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
3 cup ham, chicken, or vegetable stock
3 good handfuls of fresh basil, torn
6 oz spaghetti (or substitute a 15-ounce can of chickpeas )
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese, grated


Directions

Score the tomatoes and place briefly in boiling water. Then skin, seed and roughly dice. Peel or scrape the carrots, quarter lengthwise and chop.


Remove the outer leaves of the leeks, quarter lengthwise, wash well and chop. Peel the celery with peeler to remove the stringy bits, then cut in half lengthwise and chop. Peel and chop the onions. When you are chopping all these vegetables, try to make them more or less the same size (around inch dice. Wash and roughly chop the cabbage.

Put the olive oil into a warmed thick-bottomed pan and cook the carrots, leeks, celery, onion, garlic and rosemary over medium heat until just tender (about 15 minutes). Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, skimming if necessary. Add the cabbage, cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the basil and the pasta (or chickpeas), which will absorb the flavors of the soup. Simmer for a further 5 minutes or more. Taste and season. The soup should be quite thick, full in flavor, and the cabbage shouldn't be overcooked--you want to retain its deep color.

Serve with some good peppery extra-virgin olive oil and fresh Parmesan.


Photo Credit - David Loftus

Head over to IHCC and check out some other Jamie recipes. I will sedn this to Cream Puffs in Venice for her Magazine Monday series too.