I'm in search of the perfect Minestrone recipe. One loaded with tender chunky veggies swimming in luxurious tomato broth and a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Sigh... Does anyone have any tips or secrets that they'd like to pass on?
When I'm craving just such a minestrone I head over to either Sazio or Don Quijote. Both places serve soups that rate a strong 8 or 9 out of 10. But, I've yet to be able to achieve these results at home, which is a serious bummer. At least for me.
As usual I my recipe search began at epicurious. I love being able to read through the reviews and suggestions, but the pages of positive reviews on this recipe didn't sell me on the ingredient list. How can you have an Italian soup with no herbs? So, I kept up the search and ended up using a combination of epicurious and this one from Tyler Florence. I used potatoes, basil, thyme, bay leaf, sage and swiss chard. I left out the parsnips and used black-eyed peas as my bean. Overall it turned out to be a great soup, but it's still not exactly the one I am looking for.
A friend of mine has the Larousse Gastronomique. Have you tried it? Its recipes are considered somewhat authoritative as far as I know. You seem like the kind of person who would already own it, but I figured I'd take a shot at a suggestion.
Posted by: Vladimir Levin | October 05, 2009 at 10:41 AM
That's one book that's still hanging out on my Amazon wishlist. Now I have an excuse to get it! :)
Posted by: Liz | October 05, 2009 at 01:22 PM
I've enjoyed Michael's Smith's minestrone: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Soup/Beans/recipe.html?dishid=9517
Posted by: Paige | January 05, 2010 at 11:51 PM
Thanks Paige. I'll have to add that recipe to my 'to do' list.
Posted by: Liz | January 27, 2010 at 08:44 PM