Instructions: What we love most about italian soups is what we love most about italian food. They are regional seasonal and their ingredients are undisguised and definite.

You would be as unlikely to find a Pappa al Pomodoro served in a home or restaurant in Aosta as a Zuppa di Aosta in Tuscany. Both are soups of their region Tuscans are proud of their bread considering it more important than pasta and every garden has its row of tomatoes. in the high mountainous province of Aosta the soups are filling and comforting made with stock salted anchovies butter and Fontina cheese.

The seasonal quality of italian soups is reflected in the method of cooking and the ingredients used. Dried cannelli are best in November and coincide with the arrival of the new oil winter minestrones are dark green and cook for a long time. The soups of spring and summer are still strong and definite but lighter fresher and more fragrant. Summer minestrone is a vivid green with an abundance of fresh herbs and hardly cooked young peas and asparagus.

Apart from the minestrones and fish stews italian soups have few ingredients. Our zucchini soup uses large quantities of zucchini and basil whilst the cannellini bean soup is no more than parsley garlic cannellini beans and extra virgin olive oil.

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