Vegetable minestrone

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 150 g beans, dried, white or red
• 100 g smoked and streaky bacon or fresh belly bacon
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 2 small zucchini
• 3 potatoes, floury
• 1 m.-sized onion(s)
• 250 g tomatoes
• 5 sprigs of parsley
• 1 garlic clove(s)
• ¼ head of savoy cabbage
• some basil
• some sage
• 100 g beans (green beans), tender
• 300 g peas, fresh, or:
• 1 fennel
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 150 g pasta or rice
• Salt
• Parmesan, freshly grated

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 50 minutes; Total time approx. 14 hours 35 minutes

Italian vegetable soup

Soak the dried beans in cold water the day before and cook them covered with water the next day until tender. Then drain. Dice the bacon, peel the celery, and carrots into strips. Dice the zucchini, peeled potatoes, and onion. Blanch the tomatoes, peel them, and cut them into pieces, removing the stalks. Finely chop the parsley and peeled garlic clove. Cut the savoy cabbage, basil leaves, and sage into strips. Trim the broad beans, hull the peas, or finely slice the fennel. Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan with the bacon cubes, onion, garlic, and parsley. Add the basil and sage and roast for 5 minutes. Add the vegetables, excluding the tomatoes, broad beans, and peas, to the oil, pour on 2.5 liters of water, and season with salt. Add the cooked beans, cover, and simmer for 1.5 hours. Add the tomato chunks and broad beans, and simmer for another half hour. Then add the pasta or rice and the baby peas to the soup. Let it cook for another 20 minutes and serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.