Minestrone Soup

We were lucky enough to have Anu, Joan and their baby daughter, Niah over for lunch, as well as Ginny and Matt.  Tara had decided to go shopping for the morning, leaving me with Marni.  So i had to look after marni, go shopping for food and then cook it.  Feeding marni - tick; putting her down to sleep - tick; trip to sainsbury's with marni - tick; mani staying asleep at sainsburys - tick; getting all the ingredients - tick; me reading recipe beforehand - not quite - managed to miss the "cook for 2 1/2 hours"!  So i had to curtail the simmering process slightly, but it was none the worse for it.  1 hour or so was fine, particularly as its just vegetables.

- Cook 3 onions, thinly sliced in 40g butter and 8 tablespoons olive oil in a large pan until soft.
- Add 5 diced carrots and cook for a further 3 mins.
- Then add the following 1 at a time, with 1 min or so in between - 2 sticks chopped celery; 300g diced potatoes; 3 diced courgettes; and 100g french beans in 1 cm lengths.
- Add 200g shredded savoy cabbage and cook for a further 8 mins.
- Add 1 1/2 litres stock and the end of a piece of parmesan if you have one.  Season to taste, cover and cook for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours.
- Soup should be thick but with enough water to cook some pasta in it.
- Add 120g dried white beans or 400g tin cannellini beans and cook for 5 mins.
- Add 150g small pasta such as ditalini (i used Alfabeto - yes, it is small pasta letters) and cook for 15 mins.
- Take out the parmesan rind, add 40g grated parmesan and serve with a slug of olive oil.

Here's ginny demonstrating just how good it tasted!