Minestrone Soup

A few weekends ago when my parents came to visit, we had a long weekend of tramping about in the cold planned so I decided I needed to come up with the perfect warming winter soup. I cobbled together a minestrone soup that turned out to be delicious and filling (which was actually more the consistency of a stew) that certainly contained a fair amount of our Five A Day.

It was such a success that Bailey asked me yesterday "Could you make that soup again?" As it is such a simple soup to make - no blending or fussing required, I was happy to oblige!

Recipe (serves 4, or 2 greedy pigs like me and Bails yesterday):

2 small onions, cut into large chunks

2 carrots, cut into large chunks

4 sticks of celery, roughly chopped

1 leek, chopped

1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks

1 green pepper, cut into chunks

1 tin of plum tomatoes

1 carton of passata

2 litres of stock

6 handfuls of pasta twists

Salt and pepper

Oregano

Fry onion, leek, carrot and celery for around five minutes before adding the other vegetables and leaving to fry until softened. Add the handfuls of pasta and the tin of plum tomatoes and leave to soften for a few minutes. Season with salt, pepper and oregano to taste. Add the carton of passata and stir thoroughly.

Add the stock to the mixture before covering with a lid and leaving to simmer. Check on the soup every five minutes and give it a good stir, making sure the mixture doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the pan. When you see that the pasta is cooked to your liking, turn the heat off and leave the pan to stand with the lid on for about 10 minutes. The starch from the pasta will make the sauce all lovely and thick at this stage. Serve with hot sauce and some crusty bread.