Ask anyone to name an Italian soup and they’ll probably put
minestrone at the top of their list. Minestrone is a thick soup of Italian
origin usually made with vegetables with rice or pasta added to it. The most
common vegetables include beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock and tomatoes. Believe
it or not, there is no set recipe for minestrone as it is made out of whatever
vegetables are in season. It can be strictly vegetarian, contain meat, or be
made with a meat-based broth, such as chicken broth.
The earliest origins of minestrone soup actually pre-date
the expansion of the Latin tribes into what would later become the Roman
Empire, when the local diet was vegetarian by necessity and consisted mostly of
vegetables such as onions, lentils, cabbage, garlic, broad beans, mushrooms,
carrots, asparagus, and turnips.
During this time period the main dish of a meal would have
been pulte, a simple but filling
porridge of spelt flour cooked in salt water to whatever vegetables that were
in season. Spelt flour was eventually removed from soups as the Greeks
introduced bread into the Roman diet and pulte
became a meal primarily for the poor.
The introduction of tomatoes and potatoes from the Americas
on the mid-16th century changed the soup by adding two vegetables
which have now become staples for the Italian dish. In Italy today minestrone
belongs to the style of cooking call “cucina
povera” (“poor kitchen”) meaning dishes that have rustic rural roots.
Like many Italian dishes, minestrone was not a dish
originally made for its own sake. Instead, the ingredients were pooled from
ingredients for other dishes, often side dishes or contorni plus whatever was left over. The word minestrone is from the Italian augmentative form of minestra, soup, or more literally, “that
which is served” from minestrare, “to
serve”.
If you’re looking for a tasty minestrone soup to warm your
family up during the cold winter season check out Frontier’s All Natural NewYork Corner Café Minestrone at O’Meagher Farms.
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