Minestrone

Method

1. dice15 min
   onion + carrot + celery to an even small dice, potato and zucchini slightly larger — the soffritto should melt into the broth while the later vegetables stay identifiable as pieces
2. sweat15 min
   low, covered, oil
   olive oil + onion + carrot + celery (+ pancetta, if using, rendered first) with a pinch of the salt, stirring, until everything is limp and translucent and nothing has taken color — browning here gives a roasted flavor that reads as a different soup; the slow sweat is where minestrone's sweetness comes from, since there is no sugar in it
3. saute2 min
   medium
   + garlic + tomato paste, stirring constantly until the paste darkens to brick and sticks to the pan, which cooks off its raw tinned edge and builds the only browned flavor the pot gets
4. simmer20 min
   bare simmer, partly covered
   + crushed tomato + chicken stock + parmesan rind + bay leaf + potato + cabbage, so the hardy vegetables and the rind have time to give up starch and glutamate into the broth — the rind is the difference between vegetable soup and minestrone
5. simmer8 min
   gentle
   + zucchini + green beans + beans, and mash about a quarter of the beans against the side of the pot with a spoon; their starch thickens the broth so it clings to the vegetables instead of running off them
6. boil10 min
   active simmer, uncovered
   + pasta + remaining salt + black pepper, cooked directly in the soup so its starch bodies the broth — the cost is that it keeps absorbing liquid, so soup meant for tomorrow should have its pasta boiled and stored apart
7. rest5 min
   off heat, lid on
   + basil, then pull the bay leaf and the rind and let it settle so the flavors marry and the pasta stops swelling; finish each bowl with olive oil and grated parmesan