Minestrone Milanese

Soup, soup, soup, soup.  I really cannot find the right words to describe why soup makes me so happy, but it does.  It's comfort food at its finest, only made better when using fresh produce from the farmer's market.  Today's offering is Minestrone Milanese and this recipe will have you swimming in soup for the rest of the week.  Now that's an image!

The only hiccup in this, in all other ways wonderful, recipe was the need for salt pork.  What in the h-e-double hockey sticks is salt pork?!  Well, the what is not quite as difficult as the where.  Salt pork is salt-cured pork belly, basically.  The where is the difficult piece to answer since I do not believe it's been in a grocery store since Maria Luisa was compiling these recipes.  I hit up the World Wide Web to see if salt pork is something that can be made at home and, SURPRISE, you can.  Of course, my decision to make salt pork could not possibly go without its own hiccup.  I didn't really have the necessary ingredients for proper salt pork....seriously who sells juniper berries! And, what the hell is quatre épices?

My head was already beginning to explode so I just decided I was going to fake it.  My local grocer sells pork trimmings, which I decided was good enough.  I also decided that I could get away with a salt-ish pork concoction that involved sea salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, and a bay leaf.  I let that sit in the fridge overnight and decided that since I only need 1/3 of a cup for the soup that whatever I pulled out of the zip lock in the morning would suffice.  I have no idea what my "salt pork" did or didn't add to my minestrone, but since I decided my minestrone tastes pretty darn amazing I am a happy woman.

Once I got the whole salt pork situation sorted, I was able to get down to business...

Minestrone Milanese

Ingredients:

1/2 stick of butter

1/3 c. salt pork - diced

1 medium onion - chopped

2 medium potatoes - diced

1 lg carrot - diced

1 medium stalk celery - chopped

2 small zucchinis - chopped

1/2 head small cabbage - shredded (I used red, but that was because that was all the vendor at the farmer's market had.)

1 15 oz can red kidney beans - rinsed and drained

3 qts. beef broth

1 c. uncooked rice

1 Tbsp parsley - chopped

1 clove garlic - minced

1/8 tsp. dried basil

1/4 tsp. thyme

1/3 c. Parmesan cheese - grated

Directions:

Melt butter in a large sauce pot.  Saute the onions in the butter, along with the salt pork, making sure not to brown the onion.  Add the carrots, celery, zucchini, cabbage, and beans.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stir occasionally.  

Add broth and potatoes.  Bring up to a boil then simmer for 1 1/2 hours.  Increase heat to high, add the rice, and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the parsley, garlic, basil, and thyme, cook an additional 8 minutes.  Remove from stove and stir in Parmesan cheese and serve.

Just thinking about this soup makes me hungry.  I love chunky soups and this dish just hits the spot.  I do want to note that Maria Luisa actually took this recipe from a restaurant in Milan, Caffe Ristorante Savini.  Apparently it is still there.  Guess I'm adding Milan and Caffe Savini to my ever growing list of places to go.