Soup au pistou – a hearty Provencal soup

Preparation – 20 minutes

Add 3 litres of water to a pot and bring it to a roaring boil. Add the pieces of smoked bacon, if you are using them for this recipe.

Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onion. Wash the leeks, remove the green part, and cut the vegetable into thin (half) slices.

Peel the carrots, remove the ends, and cut them into medium-sized pieces. Remove the ends of the zucchini and cut them into cubes.

Peel the potato and also cut it into cubes. Remove the ends of the green beans and give them a good chop. Remove the crowns of the tomatoes and cut them into large chunks.

Rinse the red and white beans and put them aside.

Finish the soupe au pistou – 1 hour + 10 minutes

Add the onion, leeks, carrots, zucchini, potato, green beans, and tomatoes to the boiling water and bring down the heat.

Cook the vegetables for approximately an hour; this will really flavour the water and turn it into a stock.

Make the pistou while the soup is cooking, this is a french kind of pesto. Use a mortar or a small blender. Peel the cloves of garlic and puree them with fresh basil. Drizzle in some 50 ml olive oil to make it a creamy sauce and season it with pepper and salt.

Add the macaroni, red and white beans to the soup, letting everything cook for another ten minutes on low heat. Season the soup with pepper and salt, then serve with the pistou and grated cheese. Enjoy!