A good old minestrone always bring back so many childhood memories. It was probably one of my mum’s most cooked meals as it was easy, filling, quite few good veg in there and delicious. She used to make it sometimes with pasta or sometimes with beans, to both if you want to make it extra filling. As most Italian food is humble and it’s just the perfect bowl after a long day at work.

You can also prepare it in advance to have it on hand for those super busy days.

Ingredients:

Serves 2-3 people  

1 carrot – peeled and chopped into half slices

1 celery stick – chopped into pieces 

1 onion – finely chopped 

A generous handful of roughly chopped kale 

2 garlic cloves – minced 

1 tin of chopped tomatoes 

400ml of veggie stock 

About 400gr of ditalini or small maccheroni pasta – I have used brown rice one 

A generous hadful of basil leaves + extra for sprinkling on top 

Salt & pepper to taste 

A glug of olive oil for cooking 

Add the oil to a large pan together with the chopped carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Gently “sweat” the vegetables on a low-medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the onion starts to caramelised and the carrots are slightly soft. Add in the tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock, bring to boil and cook for another 8-10 minutes. Add in the pasta and chopped kale and keep on cooking until the pasta is cooked through (mine took 8 minutes) Add in the chopped basil, season with salt & pepper and served with extra basil leaves.