[CH] Dutch guys and a receipt

Virginia Anderson (assembly1@waitrose.com)
Fri, 08 Jun 2001 15:18:50 +0100 

Hi Dewi and Cameron (et al.),

>> Are you sure it is Dutch and not Deutsch? The name sounds way too German to
>> be Dutch.
> 
> Just what I thought when I transcribed it. He was a bit of a mixture:
> 
> Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727-1817)

I know nothing about this subject but will put my oar in anyway.  Could it
be that this guy Germanised (or Austro-Hungarianised) his name when he moved
to Vienna?  The composer Georg Frederic Handel (with an umlaut) became
George Frederick Handel (without) when he moved to England.

Having written that scintillating bit of gumph, a recipe.  This is dead easy
and tastes very fine.  I'd been trying to tart up minestrones for years,
using stock as base and such, but it was always disappointing.  The
difference is using a water/tomato base (as below), serving the pesto at
table (an option below), and frying a jalapeno and a couple cloves garlic
with the onion and serving crushed red chiles as well.

Thought gardeners might like this because it sure uses up vegetables (and
leftover pasta) and one could play with the chile, herbs and veg. content to
great effect.

Cheers,

Virginia

Minestrone con Pesto (Vegetable Soup with Pesto Sauce)
Week 9: Piedmont, Valle d' Aosta and Liguria.

Serves 6-8

4 med. potatoes, peeled and diced [used small red salad pots, skin on and
     quartered]; 
1 slice (about 250g/9 oz.) pumpkin, or a few sliced courgettes [yellow
     courgettes or zucchini];
1 sm. cauliflower, broken into small florets;
75g (3 oz.) mushrooms, roughly chopped [used portabellos, which darkened the
     stock in an attractive way];
100g (4 oz.) fresh or frozen peas;
150g (5 oz.) broad beans, or green beans cut into pieces [used fine beans];
1 med. can (400g/14 oz.) cannelini beans;
1 onion, finely chopped;
2-3 T. olive oil; 
6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or 1 med. can plum tomatoes);
3 T. parsley, finely chopped;
salt and pepper; 
100g (4 oz.) rice or pasta (ribbons or broken tagliatelle);
pesto (see separate recipe and use half)[didn't send along pesto recipe as
    they're pretty common - I used commercial "fresh" as my basil has not
    thrived this year];
4 T. grated parmesan or pecorino

Fill a pan with plenty of salted water and bring to the boil.  Add the
potatoes, pumpkin, cauliflower, mushrooms, fresh peas and broad beans and
simmer for about 40 mins. or until the vegetables are very tender [cooked
potatoes, cauli and beans, zucchini and shrooms, frozen peas went in with
the pasta - and 20 minutes or less in total to keep some bite in the veg.].
Add the cannelini beans and heat through.

In the meantime, fry the onion in oil until soft [I added garlic and chile],
add the tomatoes and parsley [added some oregano] and cook a further five
minutes, then pour the mixture in the soup; check seasoning.  If you are
making it in advance, put in a cool place at this point.  Twenty minutes
before serving, bring to the boil and add the rice, or 10 mins. before
serving if you are adding pasta [cooked the pasta separately to avoid
mushing the veg.].  When the rice or pasta is cooked, stir in the pesto, or
pass it around along with the grated cheese and let everyone help
themselves.

-- 
Virginia Anderson
Leicester, UK
<vanderson@experimentalmusic.co.uk>
Experimental Music Catalogue: <http://www.experimentalmusic.co.uk>
...experimental music since 1969....