Warm Up With Minestrone
Beat the rainy day blues and make Tomatina’s signature minestrone in the comfort of your own home!
INGREDIENTS
1.5 cups Diced yellow onion
½ cup Diced celery
½ cup Peeled and diced carrots
2 ounces Extra Virgen olive oil
1.5 tbs Chopped fresh garlic
1 tbs Chopped Fresh Thyme
2 ea Bay leaves
1.25 cup Chopped plum pear tomato
1.5 tbs Kosher Salt
1 pinch Black ground pepper
4 cups Cannellini beans
2 bunch Curly kale (wash, remove from stems and chopped)
14 cups Filtered Water or Chicken broth
1.5 cup Diced zucchini
¾ cup Green Beans (remove stem and slice sideward)
METHOD
In a heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil until it begins to smoke. Add the chopped garlic and cook until it’s a light, golden brown, and then add the chopped thyme, onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper.
Lower the heat and sweat the vegetables for 20 minutes with frequent stirring. Once the vegetables are tender, add the chopped tomatoes, cannellini beans and water or chicken broth.
Bring to a boil over high heat then lower to a simmer point and allow the soup to simmer for 40 minutes while skimming often.
After 40 minutes of simmering, add the chopped kale, greens beans and allow the mixture to cook for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the diced zucchini before serving and enjoy!
According to Executive Chef Rogelio, the minestrone soup tastes best if prepared a day prior.
Pro tip: Sweating is the gentle heating of vegetables in a little oil while stirring often to ensure that any emitted liquid will evaporate.