I don’t know where they are hiding sheep in Greece, but then I hung around Athens and the hills behind.

i never met a feta i didn’t like, but someone plese enlighten me: what is parmesan crust?

and i can vouch for that gelatin helping achy joints.

Could you fix that for me Bryan. 😉 Ta! 😀

Southern Italian Minestrone

Minestrone is one of those dishes with a thousand different recipe’s! It was originally a poor family meal made up of whatever ingredients could be found. This particular recipe has been used extensively through Southern Italy, though it’s probably used all over with some variations. 🙂

Ingredients:
1 kg soup potatoes
1 kg vegetables (onions, leeks, fresh or dried kidney and soup beans, green beans, carrots, celery, turnips, pumpkin, spinach) or whatever vegitables are in season or easily found. Fresh is best.
4 cloves of crushed garlic (or up to individual taste)
150gr Swiss air-dried pig chest bacon (or similar thick, lean bacon)
1 pig trotter (secret ingredient #1)
1 Parmesan crust (secret ingredient #2)
1 large slice of pig skin (pork rind from the bacon) (secret ingredient #3)
4 Bay leaves
Fresh chopped parsley, basil, 1 twig of thyme and 1 of rosemary (proportions up to you)
6-8 Cloves (number of cloves up to individual taste)
6-8 Peppercorns (used for cooking soup beans)
Rock Salt, ground black pepper (Up to individual taste.)
Freshly grated Parmesan and Pecorino cheese. (again, amount depends on individual taste. however, Parmesan should be a wedge with the crust on for use later).

NOTE: 1kg = 2.2lbs. No need to be exact in the measures for the vegetables. And it depends how big a pot you have and how much you want to make. Just try to keep all the proportions relative. 🙂

Preparation:
1. Cook the soup beans separately (otherwise they’ll taint your soup black) in a little water with a bay leaf, peppercorns and two cloves.

2. Saute the finely diced bacon. Add finely chopped onions and leek and continue to saute over medium-high heat until the onion and leek starts to brown slightly.

3. Add the first secret ingredient, her majesty the piggy trotter! They pack a large amount of gelatin that helps thickening the soup. You might be able to use a marrow bone instead, but it would not be so authentic anymore. Elderly Italians swear that this helps relieve arthritis. 🙂

4. Add the diced potatoes and other root vegetables (carrots, turnips, celery, turnips etc…). Also add the cubed pumpkin at this stage. Cooking time is not so vital here since the soup will cook for about 3 hours and every vegetable will fall apart. Cover with water, mineral water is preferable if you have it. Bring to a boil and then decrease the heat to simmer the soup for hours.

5. Now for the secret ingredient #2, a slice of pig skin (recycled from the chopping of the bacon piece). Remember to remove it from the soup at the end), it will add a nice flavor. As for secret ingredient #3, the most important and most Italian ingredient is the Parmesan crust, cut from a piece of Parmesan used later. Kids in Italy will fight over who gets to eat that, and it adds nice flavor to the soup.

6. A twig of rosemary and thyme will cook with the soup. Add the bay leaves (you can sew everything in a leek outer skin for a nice flavor touch – a little French technique learned from a Cordon Bleau Chef).

7. Add the freshly cut green beans and zucchini. Do not worry about overcooking the zucchini, they are meant to be so overcooked they’ll turn into a puree that will help thicken the soup.

8. After 20 minutes spent washing, stemming and cutting spinach leaves, they are finally ready to be added to the soup. The cooked beans are filtered from their black cooking broth and added.

9. Cover and simmer until most vegetables start falling apart without your needing to really crush them – usually about 3 hours.

10. Remove the pig skin, bay leaves and herbs. Add some finely chopped parsley and/or basil. Correct the seasoning with ground rock salt and ground pepper as needed.

11. With a potato crusher crush the vegetables. Serve the soup hot with grilled bread, raw olive oil and a sprinkling of freshly grated mix of Parmesan and Pecorino cheese.

12. A squeeze of lemon juice or vinegar can be added for zest if you like.

You can reheat this soup the next day and the day after and even eat it cold. Since most ingredients are dissolved in the soup, the texture remains fine and palatable. It can be frozen also. People swear it tastes better when it’s a day old. 😉

BTW, Heres the ‘Maltese Kitchen Prayer’ (often found hanging on a kitchen wall in a Maltese home). 😉

Help Yourself to Whatever is Before You
Take Enough For Your Hunger And Thirst
Heap Your Plate and Enjoy to the Fullest
Just Remember to Thank the Lord First.

Goda di (Enjoy!) 😀