Minestrone with parsley root

more is more

My favourite way to eat this is with toasted pumpernickel or rye bread as a warming meal-in-a-bowl. My “smart way” to cook it is with a pressure cooker which retains more nutrients and saves on energy too.

Parsley and parsley root proliferate in this winter vegetable melange and imbibe the soup with startlingly high levels of Vitamin C and magnesium as well perhaps it’s mystical ability to transport the eater between earth and the spirit world (as the ancient Greeks believed)!

It is of course Italy that claims “minestrone” as its own and now Sardinia has claimed it as a “Blue Zone” healthy ageing staple but there are variations all around the Mediterranean, all with their own versatile and thrifty takes on a “cucina povera” vegetable stew.

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Turkish “tarhana” soup

The home-made tarhana adds a specific satisfying ever-so-slightly tangy taste and a pleasing gloopiness. Some say it is reminiscent of Heinz tomato and oxtail tinned soup! Wherever you hale from, it certainly delivers a bowl of hearty goodness and comfort.

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Roast Golden Tomato Sauce

does what it says on the tin

Sweet, ripe, fleshy orbs of sunshine just beg to be bottled for darker days – think punchy pasta sauce, ricotta gnocchi pure white pillows peeping through a blanket of yellow or a warming tomato soup base.

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