Minestrone

The evening before, soak the beans.

Chop the leek, celery stalks, and one carrot, and prepare a base by slowly sautéing everything with the bay leaf in oil. Meanwhile, clean all the vegetables, wash them, and cut them into small pieces.

After about an hour, add the cannellini and black-eyed beans to the sauté along with all the other ingredients, cover with two liters of water, and cook for five to six hours over moderate heat, adding more hot water if necessary should the minestrone dry out too much.

Shortly before turning off the heat, add salt and season with a pinch of pepper. Serve, bringing the bottle of extra virgin olive oil to the table so that everyone can dress it to taste.

This is a winter version of minestrone, which can be prepared in every season of the year with whatever the vegetable garden offers at the time. The ingredients listed are therefore purely indicative. In spring, zucchini with their flowers—which should be stripped of their pistils—eggplants, onions, chard, lettuce leaves, shelled peas, tomatoes, and aromatic herbs will go into the pot. And those who live in the countryside will easily enrich the minestrone with leftovers from pig slaughtering, a ham bone, or the carcass of a hen.