Rustica Minestrone Soup- Buy, Cook and Eat Local

Nothing tastes better on a cold winter's night than a bowl of homemade minestrone soup. This variation is a fast track method where it doesn't need to cook all day and can easily be done in two hours. The key is season everything separately as you go.

Soup Base Ingredients:
1 32oz Chicken Broth
1 32oz Beef Broth
1 28 oz Diced Tomatoes
1 19 oz Black Beans
2 Bay Leaves

Place above ingredients in your stock pot and bring to a boil then tone it down to a simmer.

Next start on your vegi's.

Dice/rough cut:
2 zuchini
1 cup green beans
1 carrot
2 cloves of garlic

Season with salt, pepper, Herbs De Provence (preferably from Central Coast Lavender Farm)olive oil and Balsamic vinegar. Place in pan and oven roast. Grill one Jalapeno pepper by itself.

Dice/rough cut:

2 medium onions (set aside)

Dice/rough cut:

2 medium tomatoes

Season with Herbs De Provence, salt and a teaspoon on sugar. Set aside for the moment.

One item you may not have on hand is my secret nopales base which I keep on hand in 8oz. containers in my freezer. This is a combo of diced noplales, tomatoes and chipotle peppers in adobe sauce that has been cooked down. I believe you could achieve the same type of flavor by adding one or two chipotle peppers diced to give the soup that smokey flavor. Look for the 7oz can of Embasa Chipotle Peppers in Adobe Sauce.

Add to the simmering soup (an hour into the process):

1 cup of my nopales mixture or 2 diced Chipotle peppers

An hour and a half into it add grilled roasted vegi's and the lonely Jalapeno pepper (diced).

Saute onions until transparent and add to soup.

Add two cups cooked pasta. Traditional people use ditalini pasta but I like to use bow tie because it looks pretty and tastes just as good.

Next, sear your tomatoes in a very hot pan with a tbsp. of olive oil. Turn off heat and throw in 1 lb of spinach, cover until wilted.

Put tomato and spinach mixture into pot the last fifteen minutes of cooking.

Serve in a BIG bowl and top with Romano cheese if so desired.