MINESTRONE SOUP

Don’t feel tied to this recipe. Chop and change the vegetables to suit what’s in your cupboard. The word ‘minestrone’, simply means big soup, but it almost always has pasta in it.

Serves 2-3

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 rashers of bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped (or use a garlic press)
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 courgette, diced
• 1 small potato, diced
• 1 celery stick, diced
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 900 ml (1½ pints) vegetable stock
• 60g (2 oz) spaghetti, broken into very short lengths
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan
• seasoning

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Fry together the bacon, onion, garlic, carrot, courgette, potato and celery for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stock, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
2. Stir in the spaghetti and parsley and cook for 10 minutes until spaghetti is tender. Check seasoning, ladle into bowls, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

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