P
Italian · Naples, Campania
Minestrone di Campania con Pasta
Naples' abundant vegetable soup with mixed pasta scraps (pasta mista): a long-cooked soup of beans, tomatoes, zucchini, aubergine, potatoes, celery, and whatever seasonal vegetables are available, with mixed short pasta shapes (ditalini, tubetti, rigatini, and broken spaghetti) added in the final 12 minutes to cook directly in the soup. The Campanian version is richer and more assertively seasoned than the Milanese — more tomato, peperoncino, and the addition of Pecorino rather than Parmigiano at service. Often uses pasta mista (mismatched pasta) from the bottom of multiple bags — a Neapolitan tradition of avoiding waste.
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
400 g
200 g
300 g
cannellini beans
cooked, drained — from dried if time permits
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2 medium
2 medium
courgettes (zucchini)
cut into 1 cm rounds
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 medium
aubergine
cut into 2 cm dice
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
3 stalks
celery
finely sliced
Your own market
1 medium
white onion
finely chopped
Your own market
2
garlic cloves
finely chopped
Your own market
1–2
peperoncino (dried red chilli)
crumbled; quantity adjusted to taste
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 g
pasta mista
mixed short shapes — ditalini, tubetti, rigatini, and broken spaghetti
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
60 ml
Campanian extra-virgin olive oil
plus extra raw oil for service
Your own market
1 small bunch
fresh basil
leaves only, added at the end off-heat
Origin · New ZealandPurely Artisan Foods · San Diego →
60 g
Pecorino Romano
freshly grated, for service
Your own market
1.5 litres
water or light vegetable broth
hot
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy pot over a medium flame. Add the onion, garlic, and crumbled peperoncino and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and translucent and the garlic is fragrant but not coloured.
2
Add the crushed canned tomatoes and stir to combine. Raise the heat slightly and cook the tomato base until it darkens in colour, loses its raw sharpness, and the oil begins to separate at the edges — roughly 10 minutes.
3
Add the potatoes, aubergine, courgettes, celery, and cooked cannellini beans. Pour in the hot water or broth to cover generously. Bring to a steady simmer and cook uncovered, allowing the longer-cooking vegetables — potatoes and aubergine — to become fully tender and beginning to yield at the edges when pressed with a spoon.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies: add the pasta mista raw to the simmering soup — not to boiling salted water, not pre-cooked — and stir immediately to prevent clumping. Maintain a steady, active simmer for 12 minutes. The pasta cooks by absorption, releasing its starch directly into the broth; the soup thickens perceptibly and the pasta offers slight, varied resistance when bitten — the different shapes will be at different stages of doneness, which is correct and characteristic.
5
In the final 2 minutes, add the halved cherry tomatoes and stir through. Remove the pot from the heat and fold in the fresh basil leaves. Taste and correct the salt and peperoncino — the Neapolitan version carries a definite background heat. The soup should be thick enough that a spoon drawn across the surface leaves a momentary channel.
6
Ladle into warmed bowls. Finish each portion with a generous grating of Pecorino Romano and a drizzle of raw Campanian extra-virgin olive oil poured directly over the surface at table.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Cannellini beans cooked from dried, doubled in quantity as for the traditional Sunday version; pasta mista from the di Martino house of Naples; San Marzano DOP tomatoes; Pecorino Romano DOP aged minimum eight months; single-estate Campanian olive oil, cold-pressed.
02
Estate — Good-quality dried cannellini beans cooked from scratch; a reputable imported pasta mista or a hand-broken combination of ditalini, tubetti, and spaghetti; whole peeled DOP tomatoes; Pecorino Romano DOP; a Campanian or Southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil.
03
Market — Good canned cannellini beans, well-rinsed; ditalini or tubetti alone in place of pasta mista; standard whole peeled tomatoes; supermarket Pecorino Romano; any assertive, grassy extra-virgin olive oil.
04
House — Any canned white beans; any short pasta shapes to hand, broken as needed; canned chopped tomatoes; Parmigiano in place of Pecorino (note: this produces the Milanese register, not the Campanian); any olive oil.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The tomato base has darkened and oil separates at the edges of the pot before the vegetables are added.
◇Touch. Potatoes and aubergine yield cleanly at the edge when pressed with the back of a spoon before the pasta goes in.
◇Sight. After 12 minutes of pasta absorption, a spoon drawn across the surface of the soup leaves a momentary channel — the broth has thickened from released starch.
◇Taste. The finished soup carries a definite background heat from the peperoncino; the pasta shapes offer varied, slight resistance, with smaller pieces softer than larger ones — this textural variation is correct.
◇Smell. Fresh basil folded in off-heat releases its fragrance immediately; it should be vivid and green, not wilted or cooked.
◇Where it lives or dies. The pasta must go in raw and cook directly in the simmering soup for exactly 12 minutes — pre-cooked pasta added at the end turns mushy within minutes, and pasta cooked in separate water never releases the starch that thickens the broth and unifies the dish.
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The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
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VI
What to Pour
A young, unoaked Southern Italian red — Aglianico del Taburno or a Campanian Piedirosso — whose bright acidity and slight tannic grip match the assertive tomato base and Pecorino Romano without overwhelming the vegetable depth. A crisp, mineral-edged Falanghina works equally well for those who prefer white.
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
Sourced through Provenance