Soupe au Pistou recipe

This is a delicious early summer soup perfectly for this time of the year, it is a french style minestrone with little bits of pasta, chunky vegetables and dried beans in a delicious broth.

 

For the Soup

• 150g dried white beans or 300g from a jar or a can
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 white onion finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic finely diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tomatoes, skinned by pouring over hot water then quartered, seeds discarded but flesh chopped
• 2 carrots finely chopped
• 2 baby courgettes finely chopped
• Sprig thyme leaves
• Handful greens or green beans
• 50g small pasta or something like linguine snapped into small pieces

If using dried beans soak overnight then cook in fresh water for about an hour.

Put the olive oil into a saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook until soft but not coloured.

Add the carrots then after ten minutes the courgettes and tomato, top up with stock or water and season. Add the cooked beans and finally pasta and simmer until the pasta is cooked. Drop in the green beans chopped into slithers or greens once the pasta is cooked.

For the Pistou

• Bunch of basil
• Garlic clove
• Olive oil
• 50g Parmesan cheese normally but we use Teifi which is a strong hard Welsh cheese

Pop the garlic in a pestle with some coarse salt and grind together, chop the basil and mash in and finally add the oil and grated cheese to form a paste like a loose pesto

Serve the soup with a spoonful of the Pistou on top.

Bon Appétit.