Today is filled with rain, wind, cold, more rain, a LOT MORE wind, and more cold, it has hovered around 35-38 all day here and has not stopped raining and spitting. That, to me, is soup-making weather! We needed something for dinner tonight that would warm us down to our toes. I'm trying a new soup today, Upstate Minestrone Soup! I had this at a local restaurant the other day and loved it, so I'm going to try it out on my family. The house smells great, hope the soup is as good! Here is the recipe as best I could duplicate it:1 lb Italian SWEET sausage (I used Johnsonville brand, took the casing off and rolled it into little meatballs for the soup.)
1 T olive oil
1 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 c chopped carrots
1 tsp crumbled basil
2 small zucchini, cubed
1 lb or 1 can diced tomatoes (try to find Italian pear tomatoes in a can)
3 cups water with 3 tsp beef soup base (I use the organic Better Than Bouillon brand)
2 c green cabbage, shredded
1 tsp salt
1/4 t black pepper
1 can Great Northern beans with liquid
1/4 c parsley, chopped
(I might add just a pinch of sugar to the soup, to help tame the tomatoes a bit. It just seems like the right thing to do.)
With the sausage, create little meatballs about the diameter of a quarter by removing the casings and cutting them into small parts. Brown the meatballs in olive oil in a deep saucepan or Dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, carrots, and basil and cook for 5 minutes with the meat. Add zucchini, tomatoes with liquid, bouillon and water, cabbage, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about one hour. Add beans with liquid, cook another 20 minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Great served with a hearty multi-grain bread or a good hard-crusted sourdough!
p.s. just finished dinner . . . it was great soup (two of the kids did not like the tomatoes, but one loved them, go figure!) (It just needed more black pepper. Will be good warmed up this weekend, too!)
