Minestrone Soup

Peel and chop the onion into small pieces, peel and cut the garlic into small pieces, and cut the proscuitto into thin lardons using some scissors.

Add the proscuitto, and onion pieces into a good sized saucepan with a tablespoonful of olive oil. Soften over a medium heat for five minutes or so stirring from time to time. Add the garlic for the last couple of minutes.

Meanwhile trim and cut the celery into thinnish slices, or if you are using celeriac peel it, cut into thick slices and then cut into small cubes. Scrape and cut the carrots into small dice, trim and cut the courgettes into small pieces, skin (after dipping in boiling water) and quarter the tomatoes and discard the pips.

Add the celery or celeriac, peas, carrots, courgettes, and tomatoes to the mixture and add water to almost cover the vegetables. Simmer for twenty minutes adding more hot water as required.

Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut into quarters, cut out the stalks and cut the cabbage into slices. Add to the soup and simmer for a further fifteen minutes.

Put the beans into a sieve or colander and swill under cold water, and add to the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for a further ten minutes  Picture  . Meanwhile chop the basil if used.

Add the chopped basil, and stir the soup well before spooning into serving dishes. Grate over a little parmesan and serve  Zoom   with further parmesan and good bread.