Simple minestrone soup | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

DifficultyNot too tricky

1. Finely chop the bacon and place it in a large, cold saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then place on a medium-high heat and fry for 3 minutes, until golden. Peel, finely slice and add 2 cloves of garlic, along with the thyme, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.
2. Trim, scrub and chop the carrots and celery into 1cm chunks (there’s no need to peel them), adding them to the pan as you go. Peel, roughly chop and add the onions. Season with a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and cook for 10 minutes, or until golden and softened.
3. Add the tomatoes, scrunching them in through clean hands, then the beans, juice and all, along with 3 tins’ worth of water. Stir well, then cover and bring to the boil.
4. Click the outer leaves off the cabbage, then finely slice and add to the pan. Slice the cabbage in half, carefully cut out the stalk and chop into 1cm chunks, finely slice the rest and stir into the soup. Cook for 10 minutes. Bash up and add the pasta, stir and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked through.
5. Meanwhile, pile the flour into a large bowl with a good pinch of salt. Make a well in the middle, pour in 250ml of cold water, then use a fork to mix until you can’t move it any more. Use your clean hands to bring it together as a ball of dough, adding more flour, if needed, to stop your hands and the dough sticking. Knead on a flour-dusted surface for 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
6. Divide the dough into two and, one at a time, roll out each piece on a floured surface into a rough round the same size as your pan. Grate over all the cheese into the middle of one round, leaving a 1-inch gap around the edge, then carefully place the second piece of dough on top, pinching and crimping the edges to seal.
7. Place a 30cm non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat and, once hot, carefully lift the bread into the pan and cook for 5 minutes on each side.
8. Loosen the pesto with 1 tablespoon of oil in a bowl, then peel, finely grate and mix in the remaining clove of garlic. Once the time’s up on the bread, transfer it to a board and brush on one side with the pesto mixture.
9. Taste and season the soup to perfection, then finish with a drizzle of oil, if you like. Divide between bowls and serve with the cheesy garlic bread, for dunking.

Tips

GET AHEAD
This soup is perfect for batch cooking – it’ll keep in the fridge for up to 3 days or the freezer for up to 3 months. Just remember when you’re batch cooking to let food cool thoroughly before freezing – break it down into portions so it cools quicker, and get it into the freezer within 2 hours. And make sure everything is labelled for future reference so you’re not playing freezer roulette! Simply thaw in the fridge before use, and use within 48 hours, reheating until piping hot throughout. If you’ve frozen cooked food, don’t freeze it again after reheating it.

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