Vegetarian Sabbath Minestrone
Image by Courtesy of Paola Gavin
Minestrone del Sabato (Italy)
This classic minestrone soup comes from Rome’s Jewish community. A good minestrone soup should be thick with vegetables, pasta or rice and never watery. The vegetables can vary according to the season – turnip, leek, cabbage, broad (fava) beans, Swiss chard, or beet greens are all possible additions.
Serves 4
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, diced
1 teaspoon finely chopped oregano
1 carrot, diced
2 medium courgettes (zucchini), diced
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
100g (2/3 cup) cooked and drained cannellini beans
100g (2/3 cup) freshly shelled or frozen peas
400g (14oz) ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
250g (9oz) spinach, cut into 2cm (3/4 in) strips
50g (1/2 cup) spaghetti or vermicelli, broken into 2cm (3/4 in) lengths
salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated pecorino or parmesan cheese
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion, garlic, celery and oregano over a moderate heat for 2 minutes. Add the carrot, courgettes, potato, cannellini beans, peas, tomatoes, spinach and 1 litre (4 cups) water and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 1. hours, then add the spaghetti and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a further 15 minutes or until the spaghetti is tender but still firm. Serve hot, with grated cheese on the side.
Recipe excerpted with permission from Hazana: Jewish Vegetarian Cooking by Paola Gavin, published by Quadrille October 2017, RRP $35.00 hardcover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
