Minestrone

Minestrone is a thick vegetable soup built on whatever's in season, bulked out with beans and a small pasta or rice. It's Italy's everyday soup, and it's defined more by its method — a base of chopped vegetables simmered slowly, a starch added toward the end — than by any fixed list of what has to go in.

What it actually is

Carrot, celery and onion soften slowly as a base, and whatever vegetables are in season — courgette, cabbage, potato — join in, along with tomato for body. Cannellini or another dried bean goes in early enough to soften fully, and a small pasta shape or rice is added only toward the end of cooking, just long enough to cook through without turning to mush in the leftover soup.

There's no single correct recipe, and that's the point. A minestrone in Liguria and one in Tuscany look genuinely different in their vegetables, but both share the same underlying logic: a slow-built vegetable base, beans for substance, a small starch stirred in near the end.

How it's served

• Hot, in a bowl, often with a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan at the table.
• As a starter, though a generous bowl also works as a light main.
• Thick rather than brothy, the vegetables holding most of the liquid rather than swimming in it.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten from the pasta and celery, which is used as a base vegetable, not a garnish.
• Say which vegetables are in the current batch, since the recipe genuinely changes with the season.
• Note if a vegan version is served, since some kitchens finish it with Parmesan rind cooked into the base.
• Mention if the pasta or rice is cooked separately and added at serving, which keeps leftovers from turning starchy and overcooked.