IN DEFENSE OF MINESTRONE
Think about it: when you visualize the word minestrone, are you picturing something out of a tin, rather mushy and beige, thickened with excessive amounts of corn starch, laced with MSG, and including tiny cubes of unidentifiable vegetables? I use to loathe minestrone . It used to frequently be the vegetarian option on hospital dietary menus, served up religiously in school canteens, found tinned in mini marts which were open all hours. There always seemed to be several tins of minestrone on the shelves, even when the stocks of chicken noodle were running low. I assume, because nobody ever bought them. I used to find it a really uninteresting mealtime option; what was the point of choosing minestrone, in all of its vegetable blandness, when something else involving beef, pork, or lamb weighed in, with the promise of more flavour, more chunkiness, more hunger-satisfying munchiness? My husband confirms that when he was a lad back in 1940's and 50's post-war, food-rationed Br
