​Minestrone Soup

This is Jamie Oliver's recipe highly recommended by my friend Pat. Pat suggests cooking with a friend to share the chopping and of course to increase the enjoyment factor! Thanks Pat.

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 leeks, sliced
2 carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
300g potatoes, diced
1.5 L boiling stock or water [Pat uses 1L veg stock plus ½ L water]
Sea salt and pepper
50g small macaroni or dried soup pasta
400g canned chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
½ pkt soup mix, soaked overnight, drained; OR  400g tinned borlotti beans, rinsed
200g (1 bunch) silverbeet leaves, roughly chopped
2 zucchini, roughly chopped
To serve
2 tbsp pesto
2 tbsp grated Parmesan

Method
* Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed stockpot, add celery, leeks, carrots and garlic. Cook over gentle heat for 10 minutes.
* Add potatoes and water or stock and bring to the boil, skimming surface if necessary. Lower heat, add salt and pepper and simmer, partly covered, for 20 minutes.
* Cook pasta in a pot of simmering salted water until al dente, then drain.
* Add tomatoes, tomato paste, beans and silverbeet leaves to soup and simmer 10 minutes.
* Add zucchini and simmer for 10 minutes or until the soup is nice and thick (mash a few of the beans to thicken it further).
* Add pasta and heat through. Serve in warm pasta bowls and top with a spoonful of pesto, grated parmesan and extra pepper.

Serves 4
Tip: Jamie Oliver suggests using up all those half-used bags of pasta at the back of your cupboard.
Happy cooking!!

Chook's comment: this is a seasonal soup and evolved using what ever vegetables were available. This can be made in the DreamPot or slow cooker.