Pistou Soup

Amanda Hesser likens this soup to a minestrone; like a minestrone, it contains lots of vegetables, some pasta and beans; unlike Italian minestrone with caramelized and slow-cooked vegetables, this soup has a relatively quick cooking time and a very fresh vegetable flavour.

The soup requires a fair bit of chopping but with the ingredients added in stages, it can be spread out over the cooking time of the soup. I made this with vegetable stock so added a Parmesan rind for extra flavour and changed the order in which some of the ingredients were added so the green beans and zucchini wouldn’t be overcooked. I added ~2 cups white beans by mistake (should have been ½ cup) and since they were beans I had cooked and frozen, there was no liquid. I compensated by adding extra stock.

I served it as suggested with the no-knead bread.