minestrone

This is all I had in the fridge:

The only thing I could even imagine to cook was some sort of minestrone, stew, frantoiana. Frantoiana is the best soup you can ever eat. It’s a dense zuppa famous is #Lucca, #Tuscany. It’s made with cabbage, beans and roasted spicy bread. I decided to improvise and make some sort of #zuppa. Let me tell you, at first I was skeptical but it turned out to be delicious.

Minestrone a la Gin

one bag frozen peas and carrots

one bag frozen cauliflowers

half onion (diced)

4 cloves of garlic (chopped)

half lemon

some fennel

one shallot

one large patotoes

one can of tomatoes

one tablespoon of cumin

one tablespoon tandoori spices

one tablespoon oregano

salt and pepper

olive oil

one can organic pinto beans smashed

old bread to toast and make croutons (as well as a variety of dry herbs)

2 cups of water (half liter).

pecorino cheese

the butt of parmigiano reggiano cheese

fresh herbs (oregano, basil, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, etc)

I hope that’s all. I really put everything in here. I wanted to be tasty, so I experimented with a lot of different spices. I met not too long ago a PhD student from Iran and she told me how she use lemon with her stew. It was awesome.

The first thing you want to do is place all the chopped onions, garlic and shallot, fresh herbs in a large pot covered with generous layer of olive oil. Add the oregano, the cumin and the tandoori spices. Add the lemon and the fennel chopped finely as well. Let it cook until it is brown and gold.

Add the frozen veggies and the potato chopped. Salt and pepper and cook on medium/high. Cook at least for 10 minutes. Add a can of tomatoes and the water. Stir and let cook for 15 minutes.

In the meantime smash the beans (one can will be enough). Then prepare the croutons. Cut old bread in cubes. Place in a large bowl with dry herbs and olive oil. Mix well. Then place on a baking sheet and place in the over to toast. Delicious. Set aside.

Taste the soup now. If it tastes like nothing add spices/herbs to it. At this point it should not be as running as early. Add the bean paste. Stir. Cook on low heat for 5-15 minutes. I like mine when it gets a little bit burned on the bottom. It is very dense and not running.