Minestrone with Ham and Pesto

This fabulous minestrone with ham and pesto is a powerhouse of vegetables and smoky moist ham hock. Finished off with basil and cashew pesto and a good sprinkling of Parmesan,  it’s a winner!

Minestrone with ham and pesto soup can ring the changes with different vegetables. It’s a great soup to use up what’s in your veggie crisper. Think, cauliflower, carrots, leek, onion, zucchini, tomatoes, squash, pumpkin, onions, peas, tinned beans, cabbage, spinach, kale, corn ……..the list goes on.

Just remember to add the vegetables in order of their softness for cooking.

Parmesan Rind

Adding the hard end of parmesan or grana cheese into your soup delivers a soft melting cheesy flavour to the minestrone. Remember to wrap these hard end pieces and throw them in the freezer to use for recipes like this.

Pesto

Making a meaty, smokey ham stock is the key to this soup. The second BIG KEY is adding pesto …… Basil and cashew pesto  and grated Parmesan or Grana Padano (parmesans younger cousin – and cheaper!) These two additions just bring the whole soup together. Please don’t skip these additions as they really bring a potent and delicious rounding flavour to the soup.

Pasta

Adding pasta to this wonderful soup adds a heartiness that completely puts it in the ‘comfort food’ zone. Lots of shapes work well. Just keep the pasta on the smallish side…..think, shells, orzo, elbows, macaroni.

Think about making this nutritious soup when you have friends around on cold, wintry days. Serve with some toasted crusty bread for dunking. Fire blazing, nourishing and warming, healthy, minestrone and ham hock soup is just the right way to add warmth and love to give your family and friends or try Pea and ham hock soup  for another fabulous hearty soup to share with family and friends. ingredients do you add to your minestrone? And have you ever added the Parmesan or grana rind to your minestrone?​

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Yield: 8 serves

Minestrone with Ham and Pesto

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

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Ingredients

Ham hock stock

• 2 pound(1 kilo) smoked pork hock on the bone
• green top of leek chopped
• 1 medium carrot chopped
• 1 stick of celery chopped
• teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 2-3 sprigs parsley

Soup

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large carrot chopped
• the white part of leek chopped
• 2 sticks celery chopped
• 1 medium onion chopped
• strained ham hock stock
• salt - depending on how salty your hock is
• 14 ounces (425 g) can chopped tomatoes
• parmesan or grana rind - optional

optional

• a cup of chopped pumpkin
• large carrot chopped
• 1/2 cup greens beans cut into 1 1/2 inch (2 1/2 cm) pieces
• 1 large zucchini cut into pieces
• 3 yellow acorn squash cut into pieces
•  14 ounce (400 g) can cannellini beans drained
• 14 ounce (400 g) tin borlotti beans drained
• 1 cup green cabbage thinly sliced
• 2 cups dried shell pasta cooked
• pesto and grated parmesan to serve

Instructions

Stock

• place all ingredients in a large pot and cover well with cold water
• bring to boil, then simmer till meat is tender (around 2 hours)
• you will probably need to top up water so that hock is completely immersed at all times - see note
• remove hock from stock when tender
• strain stock discarding vegetables
• you should have around 6 pints (3 litres)
• remove skin and bone and chop meat
• refrigerate the meat until ready to add back to the soup

Soup

• melt oil and butter in a large pot
• place onion, leek, carrot and celery into pot sautéing for 5-6 minutes or until vegetables are softened but not browned
• add the stock, around 6 pints (3 litres)  (if not enough top up with some water), tomatoes and parmesan rind
•  bring to boil then reduce heat to medium adding pumpkin, carrot and green beans
• cook for 5 minutes then add zucchini and squash
• drain borlotti and cannellini beans and add to soup
• return meat to soup along with the cabbage and cook for 2-3 minutes
• add macaroni and heat for a minute
• serve with pesto and grated parmesan - see note
• enjoy!

Notes

• pesto and parmesan are the crowning flavours to this soup
• keep the water topped up whilst cooking the stock
• soup freezes well

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 1246Total Fat 20gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 13gCholesterol 36mgSodium 1916mgCarbohydrates 220gFiber 49gSugar 49gProtein 69g

Nutritional information provided here is only intended as a guide.