Mediterranean Diet Recipe: Minestrone Genovese

Forget that coffee-shop bowl of canned beans and carrots and soggy noodles. Real minestrone is a wonderful soup full of the mingled flavors of fresh -- but long-cooked -- vegetables. It might include green beans, peas, favas, escarole, Swiss chard, turnips, leeks, carrots, cauliflower, pumpkin or zucchini blossoms, and many kinds of both summer and winter squash. Some cooks add pine nuts; some also add tomatoes, though this is frowned upon by traditionalists. In Genoa, where the soup was quite possibly born, a particularly well-made one, with an abundance of ingredients -- the kind one might make to honor a guest, for instance -- is sometimes called Signore Minestrone.

Ingredients Required:
2 quarts Water
Salt
1 bunch spinach, rinsed and coarsely chopped
1 bunch kale, rinsed and coarsely chopped
2 small zucchini, cut in 1/4-inch slices
2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut in 1/2-inch slices
2 small Japanese eggplants, cut in 1-inch slices
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked 20 minutes in warm water, then drained
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound tubetti or fideos pasta
2 cups cooked white beans
2 generous tablespoons pesto

Procedure:
• Lightly salt water and bring to boil in large pot. Add spinach, kale, zucchini, potatoes, eggplants, mushrooms and oil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook, uncovered, 1 hour.

• Add pasta and cook about 10 minutes longer, or until pasta is almost done. Add cooked beans and cook about 5 minutes more.

• Remove pot from heat. Adjust seasonings to taste. Let cool about 10 minutes, then stir in pesto and serve.

• Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:
539 calories;
228 mg sodium;
0 cholesterol;
14 grams fat;
87 grams carbohydrates;
21 grams protein;
4.96 gram fiber.

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