A COSY MINESTRONE

my soup SZN staple coming in hot

I have a long list of foods that I hated as a child and have learned to love as an adult, Minestrone Soup is high on that list. What is it about this soup that England so deeply misunderstands? I was forced to reevaluate my relationship with the soup when my Italian housemate Virginia mentioned for the 100th time how much she loves a bowl of minestrone. I have yet to witness Virgi being incorrect about anything, except perhaps espresso martinis, so I had to take her word for it and look a little closer at why I wasn’t yet a fan. I realised, that my idea of minestrone soup was largely wrong, based on a bunch of poor imitations from school dinners and rural English cafes. She explained that traditionally you don’t use tomato and that the colour should be a yellow / beige / green palette, made up mostly of broth, root & cruciferous vegetables and legumes. These are all things I adore, so with my tail between my legs, I began researching traditional recipes and thinking about what my version might contain.

Now that I have come right out the other side and am firmly a minestrone lover, let me tell you exactly what I love so deeply about it. Firstly, anything that is this easy to whip up and lasts well in the fridge for a week, maybe even gets better after a few days, is high on my list of priorities. It’s the perfect recipe to prep on a slow Sunday and have on hand to lean on, for a quick lunch or a cosy supper on the sofa. Secondly, I am a huge fan of a dinner that is served in a bowl and can be eaten with a spoon. I’m reading Nigel Slater’s ‘A Thousand Feasts’ at the moment and he has a wonderful passage entitled “The Benign Intimacy of a Spoon” which extolls the virtue of this particular piece of cutlery. He writes “Food eaten from a spoon seems more sustaining than that from a fork because it often comes surrounded by a pool of broth, sauce, soup or gravy. An extra little puddle of nourishment.” I couldn’t agree more with Nigel, nor could I recommend this book more highly as a great Christmas gift for the food lover in your life (or indeed for yourself, as I did). Which brings me to say that next week on The Late Plate I will be publishing my annual Christmas Gift Guide, free to access, packed full of my favourite things to buy for loved ones (or oneself) at any time of year, but particularly Christmas.

So keep an eye out for that. Make yourself some minestrone. And most importantly, stay cosy.

Sending love, Rosie x