› Budget Menu & Dirt Cheap Recipes › Dirt Cheap Dinners › Minestrone with Ham and Parmesan
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated October 17, 2008 at 2:18 am by .
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- October 15, 2008 at 6:03 pm #264662mos
this is a recipe that I made to work with whatever I had on hand — don’t they always make the best soups or bring out the creativity in you?;-) please don’t be turned off by what seems like a long list of ingredients…it really isn’t…I’ve listed all the ingredients that I’ve made this soup with so you can pick and choose… this recipe also serves 10!!! this is so that you can portion it up and put some in the freezer so it really is a cheap meal because it makes soooo much!
Minestrone with Ham and Parmesan:106:
1/2 lb fresh or canned pinto beans, rinsed, or 2/3 cup dried beans, preferably soaked overnight
1 large meaty ham bone, excess fat removed or 2 smoked ham hocks, or 2 lb smoked pork neck bones, or 1 1/2 lb ham steak
12 cups water
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp fresh rosemary, or 1 tsp dried rosemary, or 2 bay leaves
2 vine-ripened fresh plum tomatoes, or 2 canned drained tomatoes, chopped, or 2 tbs tomato paste
1 large onion, coarsely, chopped
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
1 large celery rib, finely sliced, with the leaves, chopped
3/4 lb butternut or hubbard squash, diced
1 large carrot, chopped
1/2 lb finely shredded cabbage
1 tbs salt, or to taste
2 small zucchini, cut into small dice
2 small yellow summer squash, diced
1/2 lb cauliflower florets
1/2 lb Swiss chard leaves, finely shredded and roughly chopped, if available
1/2 lb green beans, tips trimmed and cut into 1-in lengths
1 cup little shells, or other ‘small’ pasta
3 tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsely
plenty of freshly ground black pepper, to serve
freshly grated Parmesan, to serve
If using presoaked dried beans, place them in a pan with cold water to cover by 3 in. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 1 hour. Drain well. Alternatively, place dried beans in a pan with cold water to cover by 3 in, bring to a boil, cover and let stand, off the heat, for 1 hour, then cook as describe above. Fresh or canned beans need no advance preparation. Place the ham bone(s) or ham steak in a large pan with the water. Bring to a boil and cook over medium-low heat, partially covered, for 1 hour for the ham bone(s), 30 for ham steak. Skim the surface to remove any scum that forms. Let the stock cool. Remove the ham bone(s) or steak from the stock. Separate the meat from the bone and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Set aside. Skim the fat off the stock and add enough cold water to make 12 cups. Transfer the stock to a large clean saucepan. Add all the ingredients listed up to and including the salt to the ham stock. Cover the pan and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce to a simmer and cook over medium-low heat, partially covered, for approximately 30 minutes. Add the zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, Swiss chard, cooked or fresh or canned beans, green beans, pasta and parsley to the pan. Cook until the vegetables are tender and the pasta is not quite al dente, about 10 minutes. Check the seasoning and return the cooked ham pieces to the soup. Serve the minestrone with pepper to taste, accompanied by plenty of freshly grated Parmesan. 10 servings = about 360 calories. - October 15, 2008 at 11:20 pm #400710JoAnn
Now this is a recipe from scratch. Does sound really good and filling. A nice grilled cheese sandwhich to go w/ this soup too –oh what a good meal. Alot of good veggies too.
- October 16, 2008 at 7:57 pm #400758brchbellWe were just talking at Church the other night about a dear family that use to live here. His birthday was on Halloween and every year his family would put up the big tripod and big dutch oven and start a fire cooking and invite all their friends to bring something for soup and we’d all go over for the fun. You never knew what anyone would bring but it was always so very good! A can of this and a hunk of that– oh what fun!
- October 17, 2008 at 2:18 am #400789JoAnn
brchbell,
Sounds like everyone there had fun along w/something good to eat. When I was a young girl at camp, we did something very much llike this too. We called it HOBO Soup.
What fun those times were.
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