One of the regular features on our menu is soup and bread. Today I made minestrone.
Last year I did a training course to develop my knife skills, and that’s where the recipe came from. Of course, I’d misjudged and misremembered a couple of things, so it’s not the same:-)
Minestrone
1 leek
olive oil
3 carrots
3 sticks celery
1 bottle tomato passata
500 mls chicken stock
1 litre boiling water
4 small-medium potatoes
2 small handfuls arborio rice
2 small handfuls pasta
1 tin borlotti beans (I would normally use dried, and soak and cook them, but I forgot to put them on to soak)
2 cloves of garlic
small wad of parsley
small wad of basil
40 grams of prosciutto
parmesan
Chop vegetables roughly.
Sauté the leeks. Add the carrots and celery and continue to sauté—without allowing the vegetables to be coloured. Add the passata, stock and water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for half to three quarters of an hour.
Add the potatoes, beans, pasta and rice and simmer for a further twenty to thirty minutes. Season to taste (use plenty of pepper… almost more than you think you’ll need).
Finely chop the garlic, then chop with the parsley, basil and prosciutto to make a pesto.
Serve a bowl of the soup with a spoonful of the pesto and a good grating of parmesan.
Bread
Makes 1 loaf
2 cups Stone Ground Flour (wholemeal)
1/2 cup Gluten Flour
1 pinch salt
3 teaspoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons yeast (yeast bubbles)
3 teaspoons oil
approximately 450mls tepid (35-46C) water
Put all ingredients together in a bowl and mix. Cover. Leave for 30 minutes or until doubled in size..
Tip out onto a board that has been floured with Stone Ground flour and knead until mixture is not sticky.
Oil bowl. Place dough in and cover again. Leave to rise double size—slowly is best.
Knock down to get rid of air bubbles (flat). Make rolls and loaf, place in tin and on tray.
Leave to rise double.
Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C.
Cook bread for 10 minutes, then turn it, and reduce to 170˚C for 35 minutes.
Cook rolls for 10 minutes, then turn and reduce temperature for 15 minutes.
(Edited to update the bread recipe.)
