Winter Minestrone

"Only the pure in heart can make a good soup"

I came across this quote from Beethoven the other day and I'm not entirely convinced he wasn't merely flapping his mouth, it just sounds like a vacuous platitude, probably designed to placate a long suffering house keeper or something.

The sentiment he was maybe trying to convey was that a good soup has to have a certain honesty about it, over egg the pudding and you've blown it.

Wow, just reread that and it is definitely going in smugopedia.

Anyway, a lovely veg soup, what more could you ask for when it's cold out?

Sounds odd I know, but the parmesan rind does add a lot of depth. Save your old bits up and freeze them, waste not want not, your granny would be proud, even prouder if you use your own home made chicken stock, but I wouldn't fret too much about it, at a pinch you can even just use water.

• 2 tblspns olive oil
• 1 medium onion diced
• 1 large carrot diced
• 4 sticks celery diced
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 2 cloves garlic mashed (green bit "the soul" removed from the centre)
• the rind from a block of parmesan
• ½ savoy cabbage stem removed, finely sliced
• a handful of tiny soup pasta like alphabetti, conchigliette or orzo

Slowly sweat the onion, carrot and celery in the olive oil until really soft, this should take at least 15 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, chicken stock, garlic and parmesan rind, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the pasta and cabbage and simmer away till the pasta is cooked and the cabbage tender.
Remove the parmesan rind, season with salt and pepper, then serve with grated parmesan a dribble of good olive oil and a chunk of ciabatta.