I have always loved this dish. And when you know that you can eat also the bowl, you just can’t say no. Another plus to this dish is no plates to wash. Great, right? Somebody maybe finds minestrone a little boring (I will write more about it later on); well, with this bread bowl it is going to be a totally new experience. I always start with the bread preparation. It takes longer to make it but instead just waiting for it to rise, you can make the minestrone. But first things first; let’s make the bread.
Ingredients for 2 medium or 3 smaller “bread bowls”:
- 500 g flour (type 405)
- 50 ml olive oil
- 100 ml luke water
- 1 package dry yeast (7 g)
- salt and sugar
Combine all dry ingredients (flour, a pinch of sugar, 2 pinches of salt, yeast) in a bowl and mix them well together. Mix 2/3 of olive oil with 100 ml water and put the rest of olive oil in the flour mixture. While stirring it with a wooden spoon, keep adding the water-oil mixture to it; a little at a time. When all the ingredients are well combined together start using your hand to mix it. Some drops of olive oil on the hands help the dough not to stick.
Transfer the dough on the working surface (sprinkle some flour on it). Continue kneading it, using your palms and your arms strength, for 10 minutes. Try not to stop before the 10 minutes; I have done that once, thinking that the 10 minutes are too long and the bread has turned out hard and not prefect at all. Better to resist for that short time and get a great bread at the end.
When the dough becomes smooth, shape it into a round ball and put in a bowl sprinkled with some flour. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Keep it in a draft-free place until it has doubled in size.
When the dough is doing its magic, prepare everything for the minestrone. Minestrone has an Italian origin. In other words it is a thick soup made with vegetables. I think there are quite some varieties of minestrone. I came from a city just on the border to Italy, where we know Italian cuisine quite well. We also have made some changes to the original recipe. You can’t go wrong with it. All you need to do is choose the vegetables you like. I like to add some meat to it. Every country has its own variation.
Ingredients for minestrone:
- olive oil
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 red onion
- 1 potato
- half leek
- 300 g beans (red, white, black)
- 3 Tsp corn
- 3 carrots
- 125 g bacon (cubes)
- 2 sausages
- salt and pepper
In a deep pot preheat some olive oil. Chop the garlic (5 cloves are not too many, believe me) and the onion. Put all in the pot and add also the bacon. Chop the leek and the carrots (cubes, circles; everything is ok) and add them to the pot. Stir from time to time so that nothing sticks at the bottom. When the onion becomes like glass and the bacon is almost crispy add the beans, corn, potato (peel it and cut in small cubes) and some warm water (how much? it depends on how much minestrone you want and how thick you want it). I usually put 1,2 litre; some water evaporates anyway. Leave it to cook on a low heat for 30 minutes, with occasionally stir. In between try to taste it, add some salt and pepper and try the carrots if they are soft.
At the end add the sausages in (2 cm long pieces) and cook for 3 more minutes. And we are done with minestrone, but we still need to work on the bread.
If the dough is fluffy and twice as big as it was before, you can put it back on the working surface (sprinkled with flour) and turn on the oven to 160°C. Divide the dough in 2 or 3 pieces. I decided for 2 because we were in two. Shape the dough in nice round ball shapes (this is important, because they will be your minestrone bowls) and place it on the baking paper. Bake it on the middle rack for 20-25 minutes.
When baked, it should be nice golden brown and crispy. Cool the bread down (for 15 min), cut the top of (do not throw it away) and take out the soft inside very carefully, without making a hole at the bottom. Keep the soft part of the bread; you can use it for some other recipe because it is already enough bread. The bread bowl alone is more than enough. And now pour the minestrone in the bread bowl, right up till the edge. Cover it with the top of the bread that you have cut before and serve. Hot bread with hot minestrone. Enjoy!
Enjoy!
