the.com/minestrone
the soup that was never a recipe, just whatever the garden surrendered that week.
means A thick Italian vegetable soup, often with beans, pasta or rice, made from whatever assortment of vegetables is on hand.
from From Italian minestrone, an augmentative of minestra, "soup" — literally a "big soup." Minestra itself comes from the verb minestrare, "to serve up" or "dish out," rooted in Latin ministrare, "to administer, to wait at table" (the same source that gives us minister, one who serves). So the name carries the modest truth of the dish: not a recipe, but the act of ladling out whatever there is.
- name origin
- From Latin for to serve, dished out to the poor
- no recipe
- Italians insist it has no fixed ingredients ever
- seasonal
- Changes entirely with whatever vegetables are ripe
- peasant roots
- Predates tomatoes, which arrived from America later
- the pasta
- Added only when grain became cheap enough
minestrone alla genovese — traditional ligurian vegetable soup from genoa, italy, containing pasta, beans, and seasonal vegetables
minestrone alla milanese — milanese version from milan that traditionally includes rice instead of pasta and pancetta