Saffron risotto, ossobuco and cassouela are perhaps the best-known dishes of the Milanese culinary tradition, but this is only because so many are unaware that the “classic” Milanese minestrone with fresh and varied vegetables is a Milanese DOC!
Minestrone alla Milanese, in fact, has an even centuries-long history and has been established in the kitchens of the Ambrosian capital and its province as a traditional peasant dish since the 19th century.
A bit like what happens with more classic dishes – famous is the case of the debate between guanciale and pancetta for the preparation of Roman carbonara – minestrone is also often revisited and, why not admit it, sometimes prepared by sinning some oversights from the original recipe.
Here is the story of minestrone alla Milanese, a genuine and nutritious dish par excellence, perfect in every season of the year whether cold or steaming.
From garden to table: historical background on Milanese-style minestrone
Today we enjoy it with oil and cheese, with pasta (the typical “broken” spaghetti or smaller formats), and by preparing it with a lively soffritto: but traditional Milanese minestrone, on the other hand, has a history that begins in the early nineteenth century, and its “pure” version is a tad different from what we are used to enjoying today.
Its first appearance in the Italian dictionary occurred in 1839, when Cherubini mentions “minestrón” (or menestrón) within the pages of his Vocabolario milanese-italiano (Milan 1839) and defines it as “that soup in which rice, beans, cabbage, and often also celery, carrot, and other things enter in company.”
While over the years many others such as Artusi or Filippo Tommasi Marinetti would mention minestrone, one would, however, have to wait until 1969 to see appear in Perna Bozzi’s cookbook – Vecchia Milano in Cucina (Milan 1969) – the recipe for minestrone alla milanese to which reference is still made today.
Rice (and not pasta), in fact, is the carbohydrate par excellence that goes with Milanese vegetable soup. In particular, the qualities of rice used to accompany minestrone were Maratelli and Vialone, two rices particularly suitable for soups. Moreover, cooking minestrone at that time required at least 6 or 7 hours.
Then again, peasant tradition dictates that the recipe calls for exclusively local and readily available, low-cost ingredients, so rice could only be the protagonist – from the earliest times – of Lombard peasant tables. Speaking of ingredients, this must be why the people of Brianza contend the origin of minestrone alla Milanese with the regional capital, since most of the vegetables came from the gardens of their lands.
In any case, minestrone alla Milanese is a dish that only later was enriched with tomatoes and potatoes, but at its inception involved the exclusive use of vegetables and greens such as zucchini, peas, beans and dark leaf spinach , as well as crispy cabbage and carrots, strictly cooked in water (without sautéing) and never in broth.
A super-light dish, in short – not surprisingly, it has recently been featured in many soup-only diets to lose weight!
But at what time of year does Mother Nature offer us these nutritious and verdant gifts? Contrary to popular belief, minestrone alla Milanese is not an autumn dish , and even less does it belong to the winter season: in fact, vegetable gardens bestow fresh zucchini and peas especially in the warm season, which is why minestrone is purely a spring dish – and as such is delicious even when enjoyed cold!
But then. What is the recipe for minestrone alla Milanese? Here it is for you, in a version enriched with pork rind and lard…. Real goodness!
Ingredients and preparation of minestrone alla milanese, with lard and rind
Ingredients needed for 10 people
- 300 g. of native rice
- One Savoy cabbage
- A summer zucchini
- 4 carrots
- A celery plant
- Sage
- 300 g. onions
- 3 medium potatoes, whole and peeled
- 300 g. fresh borlotti beans
- Minced lard with parsley and a clove of garlic
- 200 g. pork rinds
- Halls
- One ripe tomato or one teaspoon of tomato paste
- A generous sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese
Preparation
Pour all the ingredients into a pot with cold water, except for the rice, cabbage, tomato, and granola. Simmer for about four hours and add the rice only 20 minutes before the soup is taken off the heat. Serve with plenty of grated grana cheese.
Your mouth is already watering, isn’t it? All you have to do is enjoy it and, once you’re done, don’t be afraid to make the classic “scarpetta”! To stay on the subject of typical Milanese products, we recommend proceeding to “clean” the dish with a good michetta milanese!
