Recipe: How to easily prepare Minestrone soup

This is a basic but lovely vegetable soup – jam-packed with goodness.

You can keep it hearty and chunky or cook the soup without the pasta in it, whiz it up in a blender, pour it back in the saucepan with some pasta and cook until the pasta is soft. Delicious!

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

2 rashers of bacon, the best quality you can afford

1 clove garlic, 1 red onion, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 1 courgette, 1 small leek and 1 large potato

1 x 400g tin chickpeas

Large handful curly kale

Olive oil

1 fresh bay leaf

½ teaspoon dried oregano

2 x 400g tins good-quality chopped tomatoes

1 litre vegetable stock, preferably organic

2 handfuls of mixed small pasta shapes

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Optional: Fresh basil

Parmesan cheese, to serve

INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Finely slice the bacon. Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion.

Trim and chop the carrots, celery and courgette.

Cut the ends off the leeks, quarter them lengthways, wash them under running water and cut them into 1cm slices.

2. Scrub and dice up the potato. Drain and rinse the chickpeas.

Remove woody stalks from the kale and roughly chop the leaves.

3. Heat a large pan over a medium heat and add a lug of olive oil.

Throw in the bacon and fry it gently until it starts to turn brown.

Add the garlic, onion, carrots, celery, courgette, leek, oregano and bay leaf – and cook slowly for about 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the vegetables have softened.

4. Add the tomatoes, potato, chickpeas and vegetable stock, cover and bring everything slowly to the boil.

Simmer for about 30 minutes, then check (with a knife tip) the potato is soft and cooked through.

5. Add the kale and pasta, and cook for 10 more minutes, until the pasta is cooked.

If the soup is too thick for you after cooking the pasta, thin it with a little more stock or water.

6. If you opt for the basil, stir in chopped leaves.

Season with sea salt and pepper and put the Parmesan on the table.