Summer Minestrone with Basil and Mint Pesto
By Rachel Davies
When I dreamt up this soup, I was imagining a British summer with some lovely fresh produce, and the kind of weather where a soup is welcome, which, to be honest, does often happen.
I wouldn’t recommend eating this soup when the mercury’s high, but it is fresh tasting and delicious with a hint of summer.
When making it, the trick is to make sure the potatoes are cooked through, and that everything else has a slight bite. Then be sure to season well with salt and pepper, taste and keep adjusting the seasoning until you’re happy with the flavour.
In my cookery classes I get my students to taste throughout as a way to really understand seasoning and developing flavour, which is the key to making delicious food.
The pesto will keep for a while as long as it’s covered with olive oil and kept in the fridge, so it’s nice to buy big bunches of herbs, whizz it up and keep the leftovers to use in lots more lovely meals.
Enjoy!
Summer Minestrone with Mint Pesto
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to finish
2 shallots, finely chopped
10 baby potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthways
15 thin baby carrots, peeled and quartered lengthways
2 fennel, trimmed and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
200ml semi-dry white wine
2 bay leaves
1 litre vegetable stock
100g asparagus, sliced
100g mange tout
100g fresh or frozen peas
Salt and black pepper
For the pesto
20g fresh basil leaves
20g fresh mint leaves
55g pine nuts
55g parmesan cheese, grated
4 tablespoons olive oil
Method
- For the pesto, toast the pine nuts in a hot oven for about 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set a timer! Then leave to cool.
- Put the mint, basil, pine nuts and parmesan into a food processor and pulse until the leaves are chopped finely.
- Drizzle in the olive oil until the mixture forms a thick paste. Add a little more olive oil if you prefer a thinner pesto.
- For the soup, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium-high heat and add the shallots, potatoes and carrots. Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring often, until softened but not coloured.
- Add the fennel and garlic and continue to sauté for a few minutes.
- Add the wine and bay leaves, and simmer until reduced by half.
- Pour in the vegetable stock and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the asparagus, mange tout, and a little salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes.
- Add the peas and simmer for a final three minutes. Remove the bay leaves, stir a tablespoon of pesto through the soup and check for seasoning.
- Serve in bowls with a spoon of pesto and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
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