Fall Minestrone

When my husband says "This soup hits me at the cellular level," I know we've got a keeper of a recipe. And this one, from Ereka Vetrini, who is on Instagram as @erekav, is a real winner. It's colorful, flavorful, packed chock full with delicious, healthy vegetables and pasta too. What could be better? It warms you to the soul, and is the perfect transitional meal as summer's warmth morphs into autumn's chill. The only change I made to Ereka's recipe was to use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, but you can do as you like. And because the pasta swelled so much after sitting for a few hours, I had to add more broth to thin out the soup a bit. I would suggest waiting to add the ditalini until shortly before you're ready to serve.

Check out Ciao Chow Linda on Instagram here to find out what’s cooking in my kitchen each day (and more).

 Fall Minestrone

Recipe from Ereka Vetrini @erekav on Instagram

Ingredients:
2 celery stalks finely minced
2 medium sized carrots finely minced
1 large sweet yellow onion finely minced
⅓ cup olive oil
2 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp dried rosemary
1 small butternut squash
1 large Yukon gold potato diced
6 cups low sodium vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)
3 cups water
10 thyme sprigs
Parmesan rind (optional)
1½ cups small ditalini pastina
1 large bundle of lacinato (dinosaur) kale or a 12 ounces bag of spinach (I used both only because I didn't read the recipe carefully enough, but adding both kale and spinach was delicious)
1 can cannellini beans drained
1 can cannellini beans blended
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Veggie Preparation:
-To quickly mince the celery, carrots and onion, add them to a food processor and pulse 20-25 times.
-Use a peeler to peel the skin off of your butternut squash. Slice the squash in half, deseed and dice into ½ inch pieces.
-Peel and dice the potato. Remove the ribs from the kale and chop the leaves into small pieces.
-Blend one can of cannellini until smooth. Do not drain the liquid before blending.

Minestrone Instructions:
-To a large pot, add the olive oil, the soffritto (minced celery, carrots and onions), 1salt, pepper and dried rosemary. Sautè over medium heat for 3 minutes then add the butternut squash, potatoes, vegetable broth, 3 cups water, thyme sprigs and parmesan rind. Bring to a boil and let boil for 6 minutes.

-Add the ditalini and cook for 8 minutes more stirring occasionally so the pasta doesn’t still to the bottom of the pot.

-Lower to a simmer then stir in the kale (or spinach), canned and puréed beans. Let simmer for 5 minutes more.
-Serve warm with grated Parmigiano Reggiano.