Winter soupe au pistou

Traditionally pistou is a summer soup of young summer vegetables, sweet tomatoes and a mass of basil oil, but here I have made a deep, mid-winter’s version with the more robust salsa verde, celery, squash and winter kale. It is a beautifully warming bowl. Serves 4-6.

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Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced

2 celery stalks, chopped

300g squash or pumpkin, peeled and roughly chopped

200g potato, peeled and roughly chopped

1 bay leaf

1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes, rinsed

2 x 400g tin of haricot or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1l water or vegetable stock

50g small macaroni, vermicelli or other small pasta

150g spinach leaves

4-6 tsp salsa verde, to serve

Recipe

Warm the olive oil in a deep pan over a medium heat and fry the onion, leeks, garlic and celery with a big pinch of salt for 8-10 minutes until soft. Add the squash, potato, bay and tomatoes and cook, stirring, for another 5 minutes.

Stir in the beans and pour over the stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the potato and squash are cooked. If tender, add the pasta and add more water if it looks like it needs it. Continue simmering for another 5-10 mins or so until the pasta is cooked, then stir in the spinach and take off the heat. Add more hot water if it’s looking a bit too thick for your liking. Check the seasoning, then transfer to bowls. Spoon over the salsa verde and serve.