Winter Minestrone!

I made minestrone with my homemade chicken stock.  It was delicious and super easy to make.  I will definitely make this again soon!  I used Ina Garten’s recipe as a starting point, but tweaked it a little (I substituted zucchini for butternut squash; also, Ina adds pesto at the end which I did not do).

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
4 oz pancetta
1 ½ cups chopped yellow onions
3 diced carrots
3 diced stalks of celery
2 diced zucchini
4 minced cloves of garlic
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
26 oz boxed chopped tomatoes (Pomi brand)
6 cups homemade chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked small pasta (I used dittalini)
8 oz fresh baby spinach leaves
½ cup dry white wine

Directions:

Add some olive oil to a Dutch oven and cook pancetta for about 8 minutes until lightly browned. Add the onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, garlic and thyme and cook over medium heat until the vegetables begin to soften, about 15 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, chicken stock, bay leaf, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 ½ teaspoons pepper. Bring to boil and then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Discard the bay leaf.  Add the beans and cooked pasta to heat through.  Add the spinach leaves and the white wine.  Cook until the spinach is wilted.  Serve!

 

(Serves 6-8)