Summer Minestrone Soup

"When it’s summer’s high season, and the garden is overflowing with more vegetables than one can reasonably consume, a great way to make use of the bounty is to make minestrone soup. A few zucchini here, a couple chopped tomatoes there, some beans, grab the lonely leek that’s sitting in the fridge, add some chicken stock, a handful of pasta, and in a few minutes you have summer in a soup. Minestrone is, by its very nature, a throw-together event. An improvisation. You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand. You can use vegetable or chicken stock. The soup can be thin and focused on the broth, or it can be thick and stew-like. On a recent trip to Italy, visiting my sweetheart’s Italian relatives, we were served minestrone twice, both times with apologies (“I’m sorry we don’t have anything special for you, only minestrone”),and both times the broth was exquisite, the vegetables perfectly fresh and tender. To our hosts, the minestrone was everyday home cooking. To us, it wasrevelatory. This summer minestrone recipe captures the freshness of the soups we had in Italy. It’s probably a bit thicker, we are serving up more veggies for the broth, but the taste is spot on. Consider the recipe a guideline, and feel free to play with the amounts or types of vegetables. Make it your improvisation! (And let us know how it goes in the comments.)..."