Milanese minestrone but…
vegetarian today!

PHOTOS OF THE VARIOUS PHASES IN PREPARATION

Warm in the cold season and cold in the summer: always good in all seasons;
Milanese minestrone is a classic that can never be missing from my table.

Cabbage, beans, rice and potatoes are its characteristic, usually together with fried bacon and pork rinds which… this time I omitted in favour of a lighter and vegetarian version.

But no less tasty and colorful for that!

So, starting as always with the ingredients, let's start cooking!

Ingredients (for 2 people):

Preparation:

Personally, I always prefer frozen borlotti beans and I always have a supply of them. in my magic freezer.

But if you prefer to use the dried ones, you need to soak them for at least 12 hours, then drain them and boil them in lightly salted water for about an hour and a half, or in any case until they are tender.

Now, skipping the pancetta soffritto (I repeat: exceptionally this time it is the vegetarian version) chop the onion, carrot and celery; and be generous with the onion, which I like so much.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. Then dice the courgettes and the cabbage into thin strips.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and brown the onion, celery and carrot. Let it wilt for a few minutes.

Add the potatoes, courgettes and chopped peeled tomatoes; leave for a few minutes, complete with the cabbage and mix well.

Cover with the broth (previously heated in another pan, if possible) and bring to the boil.

Add the beans (cooked or frozen) and let simmer for at least forty minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.

The original recipe calls for the rice to be cooked separately, perhaps with a rice cooker, and distributed, seasoned with very little oil, on the diners' plates to distribute the minestrone on top (left to rest, at the end of cooking, for about ten minutes). When I foresee that there will be no minestrone left, I add it during the last ten minutes of cooking: the ten minutes of rest with the heat off will bring it to the right point!

Now all that remains is to serve the minestrone while it's still hot, with a drizzle of raw oil and a generous sprinkling, as per the old tradition of Grated Sbrinz.

Buon appetito!

ADVICES AND NOTES:

•  Recipe, text only: to print or download.
• sbrinz: traditionally the cheese used in this and other Lombard preparations was Sbrinz: however, it was once an imported product! Living in Switzerland, for me it is a local product…
  if you really don't have it, Grana Padano will be the right substitute.
• I put half of the potatoes in large wedges and, towards the middle of cooking, I mash them with some vegetables (mainly beans) with a potato masher:
   the result will be a pleasantly creamy minestrone.
• See also: Minestrone svuotafrigo!

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