Week 9: Minestrone (big soup) Redux

My parents and grandfather were here for several days at Christmas (2004), so I offered to make them my minestrone soup. At first, Mom was lukewarm to the idea because, she said, she doesn’t much care for minestrone, or any tomato-based soup. When I told her mine doesn’t have a tomato base, she was interested and willing to give it a try. My Soup cookbook says, “There are as many versions of minestrone (big soup) as there are regions of Italy—and Italian grandmothers….” and it goes on to describe some of the variations. Dad said he makes his with a tomato base, but he, too, was interested in trying mine.

So, off I went to HyVee on Sunday afternoon with my list of ingredients. Dad had pointed out that my Soup cookbook has a section in the back that defines and discusses several terms, including the interchangeability of pancetta, prosciutto, bacon and ham. Mom doesn’t care for prosciutto, so I used bacon this time instead. Again, I was confused about the shelled peas, and I mistakenly bought dried peas instead of fresh or frozen. Mom said they might work ok if I soaked them long enough, so I followed the quick soak instructions on the package. I wanted to make sure I left myself plenty of time this time to prepare all of the vegetables and ingredients, so I started peeling and chopping around 3:30 in the afternoon and planned to eat around 6:00.  Mom had gone to take a nap, and Dad finally did after I shooed him out of the kitchen because I wanted to show him that I could do this myself. I did ask for his advice and expert opinion a couple of times (including how to avoid crying when chopping an onion—which I had chopped in 9 seconds in my magic squisher), but for the most part I did fine and had it ready to put on the table by 5:00. I let it simmer while we made a salad and warmed a loaf of Italian bread, and we sat down to eat at 5:30. Aside from the peas, which had not soaked long enough and were still hard, it was delicious. Mom and Dad both liked it and were very complimentary. They also were impressed that our small-town grocery store had items like Italian risotto rice.

The next day, when I asked Mom what she wanted to do for lunch, she said she was looking forward to having some more of my minestrone soup, so that’s what we did. Even my grandfather, who isn’t big on soups, had some and enjoyed it. It really is a yummy, hearty, filling, and healthy meal. After my family left the next day, I put what was left of the soup in some of my new storage containers and had it for lunch or dinner for the rest of the week.

“There are as many versions of minestrone (big soup) as there are regions of Italy—and Italian grandmothers….” ~Elsa Petersen-Schepelern, in Soup