For the Best Minestrone, Make It Ina Garten's Way

Queen Ina has several tricks up her sleeve for making this classic soup even more delicious.

Minestrone soup is one of my favorite comfort foods. On Sundays during the colder months, I like to make a big batch for dinner, using it as an opportunity to clear out my crisper drawer and use up produce, cured meat, and cheese odds and ends. I use my largest Dutch oven and let it simmer slowly for hours, then enjoy it all week long.

I’ve never really used a specific recipe. My minestrone has always been a little more Stone Soup-inspired: a little of this, a little of that, and a sprinkle of whatever dried pasta has been in my pantry the longest.

Ina Garten's Secret to the Best Minestrone

My Sunday soup routine took an unexpected turn when I recently discovered Ina Garten’s Winter Minestrone Soup. At first glance, the soup looks very similar to every version I’ve ever made. It starts with a medley of chopped aromatic veggies (like carrots, celery, and onion), which are transformed into a tomato-spiked broth full of lots of seasonal vegetables. However, once I dug a little deeper, I discovered the game-changing secret to this warming soup: store-bought pesto.

This trick is heavily inspired by classic Ligurian minestrone, which is usually topped with Genovese-style pesto. Ligurian minestrone does not typically contain tomatoes, but Ina’s version relies on canned chopped tomatoes to add acidity and brightness to the soup base. Then, at the end of cooking, she stirs in two spoonfuls of herbaceous pesto, giving a punch of flavor to the entire pot.

Ina's Other Tricks for Unforgettable Minestrone

In addition to the pesto, this soup has a few more secrets to its irresistible flavor. First up, the pancetta. Just like bacon makes everything better, pancetta can similarly instantly improve just about anything it’s added to. In this recipe, the pancetta is crisped in some olive oil and remains in the pot when the aromatics are added. This really allows the flavor to permeate the soup, giving a salty umami base to the broth.

The butternut squash adds a lovely sweetness and hearty texture to the soup. I often think butternut squash is only for creamy soups, but I loved the chunkiness it gave this soup. You could easily swap it for sweet potato or any other seasonal squash. Ina's recipe calls for spinach, but since I was making this with meal prep in mind, I left the spinach out and added it a handful at a time when reheating the soup to preserve its texture and freshness.

One more trick that I’ll use over and over again is that, along with the pesto, Ina calls for adding one-half cup of dry white wine at the end of cooking. At first glance, this read like a typo to me. I always add wine to my soup, but it’s usually right after sauteeing the aromatics to help scrape up any brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pot.

In Ina's recipe, the wine is added at the very end. Because it doesn’t have a chance to cook off, its acidity and complex flavors shine through. It adds a brightness and level of sophistication to the finished soup that makes it taste very special.

I don’t think I could ever attempt to improve any of Ina’s flawless recipes, but the only thing I did differently here was add a piece of Parmesan rind while the soup simmered. If you have some on hand, it adds a ton of flavor and richness to the broth. This is a recipe I’ll be repeating all winter long!

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