Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone

January 23, 2012 By 2 Comments
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Philly got a bit of a present over the week­end in the form of freez­ing rain and snow galore. With the freez­ing rain that turns the hills of Man­ayunk into skid cen­tral, it was a week­end in for this gal. The Sous Pug didn’t fare well with the snow as he is now offi­cially com­pletely blind and could only slide down the side­walks and stand bewil­dered on the freez­ing snow banks that he bravely attempted to climb. He pretty much was ready to pack his toys and head back to Florida.The good thing about being a food blog­ger held cap­tive dur­ing a snow­fall is that one can play in the pantry for a bit.

One of my new favorites for win­ter is this com­fort­ing Win­ter Mine­strone Soup from Giada de Lau­ren­tiis. It was light­en­ing quick to make and per­fect to take off that icy chill. The one step you can’t skip is the parme­san rind – it’s def­i­nitely one of those secret weapons. I buy them from Whole Foods and keep them in the freezer for soups like this.  Grab a bowl of this soul sooth­ing soup and curl up on the couch.  It’s a recipe that you will find your­self mak­ing again and again.

Win­ter Minestrone
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Author: Adapted from Giada de Lau­ren­tiis
Ingre­di­ents
  • 3 slices of thickly cut bacon, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 car­rots, peeled and chopped
  • 2 cel­ery stalks, chopped
  • 2 cloves gar­lic, minced
  • 1 pound Swiss chard, stems trimmed, leaves coarsely chopped
  • 1 large Yukon gold potato, peeled and cubed
  • 1 can (14.5 oz.) diced toma­toes in juice
  • 2 fresh rose­mary sprigs
  • 1 can (15 oz.) can­nellini beans, drained and rinsed, divided
  • 4 cups of beef broth, divided
  • 1 small Parme­san rind
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • Salt and Freshly Cracked Pepper
  • Grated Parme­san for garnish
Direc­tions
  1. In a large dutch oven over medium heat, crisp up the bacon and set aside.
  2. Retain about 2 table­spoons of the bacon fat and add the onions, gar­lic, car­rots and celery.
  3. Sauté until the onion is translu­cent (around 10 min­utes or so).
  4. Add the Swiss chard and let it wilt a bit.
  5. Add the cubed potato, sea­son with salt and pep­per and cook for 2–3 minutes.
  6. Add the toma­toes and rose­mary springs and bring every­thing to a boil.
  7. Lower the heat and let the mix­ture sim­mer for 10 min­utes, allow­ing the chard to fully wilt and the toma­toes to become soft.
  8. In a blender, com­bine 3/4 of the rinsed and drained can­nellini beans with 1/2 cup of the beef broth. Blend until smooth.
  9. Add the pureed beans, remain­ing broth and parme­san rind to the sim­mer­ing vegetables.
  10. Sim­mer, stir­ring occa­sion­ally for about 15 min­utes until the pota­toes are tender.
  11. Add the remain­ing beans and the pars­ley, sim­mer­ing for 2–3 min­utes until the beans are heated through and the mix­ture is thickened.
  12. Dis­card the rose­mary stems, sea­son to taste with salt and pepper.
  13. Gar­nish with grated parme­san and serve.
Google Recipe View Micro­for­mat­ting by Easy Recipe

Gather the ingredients

WinterMinestrone Ingredients 300x200 Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone
Swiss Chard adds a bit of heft to the soup.

WinterMinestrone SwissChard 300x175 Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone

Toma­toes and Rose­mary play so nicely together

WinterMinestrone TomatoesRosemary 300x200 Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone

Time to puree the beans

WinterMinestrone BlenderBeans 300x200 Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone
The secret ingre­di­ent for some of the best soups – parme­san rind

WinterMinestrone ParmesanRind 300x199 Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone

A bowl of cozy com­fort for a chilly winter’s night

WinterMinestrone Final 300x200 Cozy Up With A Bowl of Winter Minestrone

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  3. It’s All About The Stuff­ing – Cia­batta Chest­nut Stuff­ing That Is
Filed Under: Comfort Food, Cooking In Stilettos, Giada de Laurentiis, Recipe, Soup, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , , ,
  • jenniferlreed3

    I don’t really care for Swiss Chard, but I may try this using some Spinach instead!! Looks delish!

    I didn’t plan on going out at all on Sat­ur­day but I had to. I needed a bot­tle of red wine so that I could make some Steak Tips in the slow cooker. LOL!

  • http://www.facebook.com/LeslieReichert Leslie Reichert

    This is just what I’m look­ing for! Thanks — I can clean — but I usu­ally only burn when it comes to cook­ing. Thanks for the help. I’ll pin it too!

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