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Feb. 25th, 2004
I made minestrone last night, wonderful, delicious winter minestrone.
Minestrone is one of those dishes that, the way I make it at least, does not have a recipe; it has a process. The process is really simple, too, and open to endless variations. I haven't made a minestrone I could reliably reproduce again for years now. Minestrone is always a great way to clean out the fridge.
Here's the process, along with notes on what I did last night.
Step One: simmer a lot of vegetables until soft.
I always put beans and something from the onion family into the pot here, and usually a tomato product too. I always add celery when I have it; ditto parsley. This is also the place to throw in a rind of parmesan, if you have it; I didn't.
Last night, it was: a can of "trout beans" (an heirloom bean of some sort that I picked up on a whim), a large can of whole tomatoes, three leeks, a stalk of green garlic, several stalks of celery, a very small head of cabbage, about a pound of potatoes, and most of a bunch of parsley.
I could have added some winter squash, but I didn't feel like chopping it up. I saved the sweet potato for something else. In the summer, I could have added zucchini (but I would be more likely to add it to the saute -- see below) or green beans. If I'd had any leafy greens -- kale, collards, chard -- they would have gone in, too.
Cover the veggies with about an inch of water (this time I used the water I saved from Monday night's dinner, in which I'd cooked a load of potatoes and greens, but usually I don't use stock -- this soup doesn't need it, so save it for something else). Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 45 minutes. After that, start tasting, and stop simmering when the flavors seem fully developed. Add salt and pepper at this point and taste again.
Step Two: The saute.
I also add a batch of sauteed vegetables late in the soupmaking process, to perk up the flavors. This is the complicated version, but I like the results; you could also just saute the onions and some vegetables directly in the pot until browned, then add the beans and other veggies and water as above.
You can also add a meat product -- salami or pancetta or something similar -- to the late saute, but I didn't have any handy last night, so I ended up with a vegetarian soup.
Last night all I sauteed was a bunch of carrots and some shallots. Usually I would've used garlic, but the green garlic was already in the pot so I decided to try something different this time. I also added generous handfuls of dried herbs -- basil, sage, rosemary, and a bay leaf too. I cooked them in olive oil until the carrots were soft and starting to stick to the pan. Then, when the soup only had about ten minutes left to cook, I dumped them into the pot and let the whole lot simmer together. I also sprinkled on some hot pepper flakes here.
If I'd been adding pasta, this would have been the place to do it, but I thought that might blandify the soup too much. I never put rice in my minestrone, but I know some people like it; it needs to go in about a half hour before the soup is likely to be done. (How do you figure out when it will be done? This is one of the great mysteries of cooking, my friends.)
Other vegetables I might have used: broccoli (I don't like broccoli in my soup), cauliflower, zucchini in the summer, peas or pea pods, even corn. Fresh herbs would have been nice, but I didn't have any.
After that, a little salt and pepper adjustment was all that was needed.
Yum! I know what I'm having for lunch this afternoon...
So, to sum up, minestrone is an easy two-step process. Simmer a variety of flavorful vegetables in water until soft, and near the end, add a batch of vegetables browned in olive oil to the pot. Simmer a little longer, taste, adjust, eat! Then make it again later, with a different set of ingredients. Taste and compare. Keep tinkering, because every batch will be different anyway.
Add some pesto when serving and basil is in season.
Add a toasted piece of bread (preferably rubbed with garlic) to the soup bowl, then ladle on the soup.
Or just grab a hunk of bread, maybe dress a handful of salad greens, and eat.
Minestrone is one of those dishes that, the way I make it at least, does not have a recipe; it has a process. The process is really simple, too, and open to endless variations. I haven't made a minestrone I could reliably reproduce again for years now. Minestrone is always a great way to clean out the fridge.
Here's the process, along with notes on what I did last night.
Step One: simmer a lot of vegetables until soft.
I always put beans and something from the onion family into the pot here, and usually a tomato product too. I always add celery when I have it; ditto parsley. This is also the place to throw in a rind of parmesan, if you have it; I didn't.
Last night, it was: a can of "trout beans" (an heirloom bean of some sort that I picked up on a whim), a large can of whole tomatoes, three leeks, a stalk of green garlic, several stalks of celery, a very small head of cabbage, about a pound of potatoes, and most of a bunch of parsley.
I could have added some winter squash, but I didn't feel like chopping it up. I saved the sweet potato for something else. In the summer, I could have added zucchini (but I would be more likely to add it to the saute -- see below) or green beans. If I'd had any leafy greens -- kale, collards, chard -- they would have gone in, too.
Cover the veggies with about an inch of water (this time I used the water I saved from Monday night's dinner, in which I'd cooked a load of potatoes and greens, but usually I don't use stock -- this soup doesn't need it, so save it for something else). Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 45 minutes. After that, start tasting, and stop simmering when the flavors seem fully developed. Add salt and pepper at this point and taste again.
Step Two: The saute.
I also add a batch of sauteed vegetables late in the soupmaking process, to perk up the flavors. This is the complicated version, but I like the results; you could also just saute the onions and some vegetables directly in the pot until browned, then add the beans and other veggies and water as above.
You can also add a meat product -- salami or pancetta or something similar -- to the late saute, but I didn't have any handy last night, so I ended up with a vegetarian soup.
Last night all I sauteed was a bunch of carrots and some shallots. Usually I would've used garlic, but the green garlic was already in the pot so I decided to try something different this time. I also added generous handfuls of dried herbs -- basil, sage, rosemary, and a bay leaf too. I cooked them in olive oil until the carrots were soft and starting to stick to the pan. Then, when the soup only had about ten minutes left to cook, I dumped them into the pot and let the whole lot simmer together. I also sprinkled on some hot pepper flakes here.
If I'd been adding pasta, this would have been the place to do it, but I thought that might blandify the soup too much. I never put rice in my minestrone, but I know some people like it; it needs to go in about a half hour before the soup is likely to be done. (How do you figure out when it will be done? This is one of the great mysteries of cooking, my friends.)
Other vegetables I might have used: broccoli (I don't like broccoli in my soup), cauliflower, zucchini in the summer, peas or pea pods, even corn. Fresh herbs would have been nice, but I didn't have any.
After that, a little salt and pepper adjustment was all that was needed.
Yum! I know what I'm having for lunch this afternoon...
So, to sum up, minestrone is an easy two-step process. Simmer a variety of flavorful vegetables in water until soft, and near the end, add a batch of vegetables browned in olive oil to the pot. Simmer a little longer, taste, adjust, eat! Then make it again later, with a different set of ingredients. Taste and compare. Keep tinkering, because every batch will be different anyway.
Add some pesto when serving and basil is in season.
Add a toasted piece of bread (preferably rubbed with garlic) to the soup bowl, then ladle on the soup.
Or just grab a hunk of bread, maybe dress a handful of salad greens, and eat.
(no subject)
Feb. 25th, 2004 10:16 pmI've just been reading about the research of Dr. Susan Goldin-Meadow in The Economist. She's just completed a 30-year study on how deaf children use gesture in language development.
I used to know Dr. Goldin-Meadow, when I was an undergrad at the University of Chicago. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
imnotandrei took a course from her as well.) Better than that, I worked in the lab next door to her for a year. I watched some of her research tapes, and I learned the coding system she had developed to classify gestures made by both hearing and deaf research subjects. I did not work on her study, though. I worked on a colleague's study. I worked on her tapes and with her system as part of my training, for practice only. But I must say that I never, ever thought that research I was even peripherally acquainted with on a working level would show up in the pages of an international news magazine. Cool!
I used to know Dr. Goldin-Meadow, when I was an undergrad at the University of Chicago. (
imnotandrei took a course from her as well.) Better than that, I worked in the lab next door to her for a year. I watched some of her research tapes, and I learned the coding system she had developed to classify gestures made by both hearing and deaf research subjects. I did not work on her study, though. I worked on a colleague's study. I worked on her tapes and with her system as part of my training, for practice only. But I must say that I never, ever thought that research I was even peripherally acquainted with on a working level would show up in the pages of an international news magazine. Cool!