Minestrone soup (Genoan)

Let’s talk about minestrone, its history and how to prepare it. Perhaps you don’t know that if our fresh vegetable soup is famous all over the world it is thank to the sea. In fact, in the Genoa port – where for centuries thousands of ships coming from all continents moored each year – there used to be the so called “catrai”, small floating restaurants arranged on boats or on small barges. At the well-known call “Eooh!”, catrai used to offer steamy bowls to sailors sticking their heads out of the vessels boards. The menu included fish soups, tripes stew and, big hero, the minestrone, which with its green freshness was of great comfort after long periods spent on board eating crackers and salted seafood. Sailors then went back to their far away homes with the memory of that soothing veggie soup and a vague recipe in their mind. Minestrone, however, was born as a home dish, a dish served at dinner, after a long day of work when eventually all the family sat around the kitchen table. A standard recipe does not exist both because minestrone was made with seasonal vegetables, the ones at disposal, and because every family had their own habits and tastes. In general, in spring minestrone was more varied and it was enriched with a basil pesto, in winter, when basil was not there, the few seasonal vegetables were seasoned, only once cooked, with a soffritto of onion and parsley.