Italian Minestrone Soup With Beans and Pasta in One Pot

It is 6:05 on a cold Sunday, the windows are fogging up, and the vegetable drawer is giving you a look. This minestrone soup recipe is a pot of carrots, celery, cannellini beans and pasta, ready in about 35 minutes and big enough to feed six. Minestrone is the soup that asks nothing and forgives everything, which is more than you can say for the last person you dated.

One pot, plain water, tomato paste and a short list.

The method is forgiving: the pasta goes in near the end and cooks in the soup itself, so it soaks up the broth, and the pot only really needs you at the start. It is a soup that does a lot with a short list, and the short list is a gift on a night when the plan has fallen over.

How to make it

1. Chop the 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks into small pieces, about 5 minutes of prep.
2. Heat a large pot over medium heat, add the chopped carrots and celery, and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the 2 tablespoons tomato paste and cook 2 minutes more.
4. Add the can of cannellini beans and 6 cups water, then bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
6. Add the 1 cup pasta and cook 8 minutes more until tender.
7. Season with salt and black pepper to taste, then ladle into bowls.

Notes

Three things decide how this pot turns out, and the numbered method already covers the rest.

Cut the carrots and celery small. Small pieces soften fast and make every spoonful look generous, which matters in a pot that starts with plain water.

Let the tomato paste darken before the water goes in. It smells sweeter as it cooks, and that is the flavor this minestrone soup recipe leans on, so do not rush it. A soup made on water is also a soup that needs a firm hand with salt, so season late and taste more than once.

The pasta is the only ingredient with a deadline. Small shapes need the eight minutes the method gives them, so stand near the pot and fish one out to bite before you ladle. It is the one part of the evening where being a little clingy pays off.

Zucchini, potato and peas are optional extras if the fridge has something to use up, and small orzo is a good pasta for this pot. None of them are in the method as written, so add them with the carrots and celery.

Pasta keeps drinking liquid as the soup sits, so day two is thicker than day one. Cooked leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. Thin the soup with a splash of water when you reheat it, and taste for salt again, since the pasta takes some of the seasoning with it.

Soups like this freeze, though the pasta softens, so if you plan to freeze a batch, you might cook the pasta separately next time and add it to the reheated pot.

Swaps that actually work

The cannellini beans, the carrots and the tomato paste are the point, so leave them alone. They give the soup its body and its color.

Any small pasta will do: ditalini, small shells, elbows or orzo. Larger shapes take longer than the eight minutes, so check one before you season the pot, and if the pasta is small, check a minute or two early.

Other white beans, such as great northern or navy beans, are a fine swap for the cannellini. A can of kidney beans makes the soup heartier and a bit redder.

If you have an onion, a clove of garlic, a splash of olive oil, a stock cube or a bay leaf, any of them will deepen the pot, though none is on the ingredient list. Add the aromatics with the carrots and celery, and dissolve the stock cube in the water. Without them, the soup still works, though it will be mild.

A rind of parmesan simmered in the pot adds a savory note, and a spoonful of pesto or a little grated cheese on top at the table does the same at the end.

The swap that costs you the dish is leaving out the pasta. Without it you have a bean and vegetable broth, and with it you have dinner.

SwipeCart knows which aisle the cannellini live in, and it will remember the tomato paste, which is a better track record than most second dates.

If it goes wrong

It tastes bland. Bland is a red flag in a date and a ten-second fix in a soup. The pot was not seasoned enough, so add salt a pinch at a time, tasting after each, and finish with black pepper and a little more salt if it still tastes thin.

The pasta is mushy. It cooked too long, or it sat in the soup for hours. Pull the pot off the heat at the eight-minute mark, and if you are making it ahead, cook the pasta separately and add it to the bowls.

It is too thick. The pasta soaked up the broth. Stir in a cup of hot water, and re-season, since the extra water thins the salt as well.

It is too thin. There is too much water for the vegetables. Simmer it for a few minutes without a lid until it reduces, or mash a few of the beans against the side of the pot to thicken it.

What to serve with it

The default is a piece of crusty bread, and it is a good default for a minestrone soup recipe.

The better version of the default is toast rubbed with a cut clove of garlic and a little olive oil, because soup this soft wants something with an edge to dunk.

The thing in the fridge that lifts it is a handful of grated parmesan, a spoonful of pesto or a squeeze of lemon at the very end.

It works as lunch the next day, and it may be the only leftover in your fridge that improves after a night apart, though you may need to add a splash of water, because the pasta will have thickened the pot overnight.

Why this one earns its place

This minestrone soup recipe is a dinner that scales. It feeds six, it holds for days, and it takes a short list from the cupboard and the crisper and makes it feel like a plan. It is the kind of pot that is easier to start than to stop eating.

Swipe it into your week and the agent shops the cart, which leaves you with a wooden spoon and nothing to prove. If you want more soups in the rotation, try the creamy tomato basil soup or the lasagna soup, and weekly meal planning is the place to start when one pot should cover more than one night.

More like this: all Italian recipes in Crave Corner.