Megan says: “Minestrone is my favourite soup – it’s chunky, uses up what’s in the fridge, there is pasta and a showering of cheese involved. It’s also wonderful as leftovers, loaded up with more stock and any extras you want to throw in. You can add pancetta or bacon at the start if you wish.”

Serves 4–6

Cook and prep: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 large brown onion (or any onion, or use fennel, or top up on the other veg)
2 garlic cloves (or purée or powder is fine, or omit)
2 carrots (or more onion, celery and leek)
2 celery sticks/stalks (or more onion, carrot and leek)
1 leek (or more onion, carrot and celery)
200g potato (can be omitted)
2 vine tomatoes (or any fresh tomato, or add 1 tsp tomato purée with the garlic)
400g can of cannellini beans (or any cooked beans)
80g cavolo nero (or any leafy green, such as spinach, cabbage, kale)
1l chicken stock (or any stock, but chicken is best in my opinion)
150g dried pasta (or any shape of dried pasta; fresh pasta is also fine, but add only 2 minutes before end of cooking)
10g parsley (or any fresh herb, or lemon zest and a squeeze of juice)
40g pecorino (or any hard cheese, or a dollop of mascarpone butter, for frying)
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

Halve, peel and thinly slice the onion. Heat a generous knob of butter in a large casserole dish on the hob over a medium heat. Once the butter is gently sizzling, add the onion and fry gently for 10 minutes, until softening.

Peel and grate the garlic. Trim and finely slice the carrots, celery and leek. Chop the potato and tomatoes into 2cm chunks. Drain and rinse the beans and finely shred the cavolo nero.

When the onions have had their time, add the garlic, carrot, celery, leek and potato. Mix to coat in the butter, then let them fry together for another 10 minutes, stirring often. Next, add the tomatoes, stock, beans and pasta. Bring to the boil and simmer for 8–10 minutes, until all the veg is tender, the pasta is al dente and it’s smelling lovely.

When the soup only has 5 minutes left, add the cavolo nero and stir through, so it lightly cooks. Taste the soup – it’ll probably need generous seasoning. Roughly chop the parsley and shave the pecorino into crumbly shards. Transfer the soup to bowls and top with the cheese and parsley, finishing with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Goes well with: Garlic-rubbed toast is my favourite.

Leftovers: Tear up the leftover garlicky bread suggested above, add it to the leftover minestrone and turn the soup into a ribollita.

These low-waste recipes will transform leftovers into tasty weeknight meals