A Winter minestrone with mizuna greens and pancetta

A hot, warm, earthy soup meal with a charming perfume of rosemary.

Winter minestrone is when you don’t get many fresh ingredients. In this season that’s normal. There are no tomatoes, no fresh broads beans. It’s the time to use dry beans. I had some white ones already cooked (my freezer stock).
They discounted the pancetta. As you can see more package than bacon, but well they sell it like the butter at the pharmacy, not cheap. There is a huge “exotic tax”. I buy it only on sales. Yesterday, 50% discount, that was mine !
I had mizuna greens. So why not ?

First the bacon, onions, garlic. Then the rosemary, potatoes and water. After 10 minutes : tomato and stalks of mizuna. After 20 minutes, beans, more green, more garlic. After 20 minutes, finition with salt, pepper, parmesan cheese.

PLUS ! PLUS !
What can you had to this great soup to make it even greater ?
Pancetta fried in olive oil, and oil.
Or mizuna raw leaves and grated parmesan cheese.
I put all that.

White + Red, White + Green

Food that cooks itself :
White beans (soaked a day), slow-cooked one night, in the cast iron pot, with onion sauteed in olive oil, lots of garlic, chicken leg drums, tomato puree, a hot chili, marjoram and rosemary. Later added the flesh of half a lemon for freshness.

The meat is so tender that it falls off the bones. Herbs give a great delicate flavor. Yuuuummy…

Funny colors…

Shan tofu and home-made ra-yu

Cal 553.7 F20.1g C85.0g P49g

Feeling like the veggies for ratatouille…

These are vegetables for a ratatouille, just out of the “fridge”, on my balcony.

4 minutes later.

Same casting : in my living room, 10 minutes later. That’s the weather we have now. LOL
Actually I took the vegetables out 24 hours before, they heat up, they still mature and become better than straight from the cellar section of the fridge (less cold).

Very simple, stir-fry (in a little olive oil), each vegetable except tomato. Start with onions to flavor the oil, and finish by aubergines as they are like sponges (I pass them under the grill before to reduce that effect). I used tomato concassee as big tomatoes are too expensive.