Minestrone

When I haven't been eating enough vegetables, or when "the fleshpots have gotten too rich for your blood," as Julia puts it, I pull out my copy of Moosewood Restaurant's first cookbook, called simply Moosewood Cookbook, and make the minestrone:

There are a number of things I like about the recipe:

• It's simple.
• It has lots of vegetables.
• Most of the ingredients are either pantry staples, or are vegetables I'm likely to keep around anyway (like mirepoix vegetables).
• It's flexible: there's no reason one can't add other vegetables one likes, or meat, as I did in this case: I had some "Italian sausage" I wanted to use up.  I also often use different beans than the suggested garbanzos.  This time it was kidney beans; next time it might be cannellini.
• It's an excellent repository for leftovers.  This batch got about a cup of leftover peas and a half-cup or so of leftover corn kernels.
• It keeps well, like a lot of soups.  But the pasta will absorb as much water as it possibly can, and become gargantuan.  The pasta in the above photo was originally orzo.  It's now as big as small macaroni.  :)

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Edit:  I'm beginning to appreciate how difficult food photography is.  I took about 50 shots of that damn soup in maybe three different bowls and in the pot, with different lighting and flash settings.  Even after editing the one photo I used, I'm still not happy.  And then TypePad cuts down the size of the thing.  Argh.  At least you can click on it to see a bigger version. 

While I'm venting:  I've occasionally tried to submit Eat at Joe's! to various food-related engines and link listings.  Something always goes wrong:  They fail to answer.  They tell me I need to link back.  Once someone told me I didn't have enough links to other food blogs, because she only saw one; I had about five links up at the time.  Or they tell me I don't fit into their scheme, even though it seems to me like I do when I submit my request.  The last person told me I didn't have enough recipes or pictures.  I'm not going to ask that person again, but I tried to stick a big-ass picture on this post as sort of revenge.  And of course it didn't work.  D'oh. 

I get the impression that while I think my blog is clearly a food blog, it's neither fish nor fowl as far as food blogs are concerned, so it just doesn't fit into other folks' ideas of what exactly a food blog should be.  Oh well.  You folks just keep linking to me instead.  That'll show them.  ;)

Comments

[Maura]

A lot of food blogs are only recipes. Which is great. There are a few I go to that are really good. But a food blog can, and should, encompass whatever you want it to.

RE: the (not so) mysteriously growing pasta. When I make pasta e fagioli, I always cook the pasta separately, and usually add it only when it's time to eat, unless the pasta e fagioli is too thin. Then I'll add it right after the pasta is done, so it thickens up a bit. But I don't like it getting too thick and mushy.

[Joe Eater]

I don't mind huge, mushy pasta, so it's ok. And I usually use something small to start with. I should make it sometime with like big shells and see how much bigger they get. It could be like "The Shells That Ate Durham." :)

[Fritz]

thanks for reminding me of a great recipe...I make something
like that and I call it pasta fazool, its probably not real
fazool since I use whats hanging around like you did but its great stuff.

The only secret to good food pics is the proper camera

Look at this pic of a basket of strawberries I took a couple of years ago with my Sony Cybershot DSC-V1

picture

the camera is now considered a relic but it takes amazing pics

[Jack]

The idea of putting Italian Sausage in a Moosewood recipe made me laugh my ass off...

[Joe Eater]

Fritz - I think better light would have helped a lot.

Jack - Come to think of it, I should have fried the onions in bacon grease. :) Not really -- I was trying to make something relatively vegetal and healthy -- but I did need to cook that sausage.

[Fritz]

sure the light was bad but the camera still amde the strawberrries look supernatural

[Joe Eater]

Fritz - Your picture was great: I meant I wish I'd had better light for the soup.

[Nibbs]

Joe - Check out http://www.alcoholian.com/ if you never have - He just did a thing on food photos that may catch your interest. Plus a good food blog anyways.

[Joe Eater]

Nibbs - he does have nice pictures. Thank you.

[johngl]

Hey Joe (and Nibbs)

Thank you for the kind words on my photos on The Alcoholian. Luckily, I have some (real photographer) friends who "advise" me. Mostly, I am still just having some beginners luck and am still working to improve the photos as well as my writing.

Between cooking, photography, and writing, this whole blogging thing can be very time consuming. Stick with it Joe!

[Joe Eater]

John GL: Yes, it's a real time sink: it takes me 2 months just to answer a comment. ;)