Recipe: Cinnamon Snail Food Truck Red Wine Minestrone with Swiss Chard and Pearl Onions

RED WINE MINESTRONE WITH
SWISS CHARD AND PEARL ONIONS

"Pearl onions are tiny little baby onions. In this soup, they go in first and cook on their own and slightly caramelize, and then soak up lots of the soup's flavors as it simmers. What you ultimately get is these little baby onions in each bowl that are bursting with the flavors of the soup."



"Soups with pasta in them, like minestrone, need something extra nourishing going on to validate their pasta-laden existence. Swiss chard to the rescue: Added toward the end of the recipe, it is perfectly cooked and kept as nutritionally intact as possible.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
16 small pearl onions, peeled*
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups red wine
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup pasta (ditalini, or small elbows or shells)
1 cup cooked and drained pinto beans
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed, chopped
Sea salt

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the pearl onions and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until the outsides are lightly browned.

Add the diced onions, celery, garlic, and carrot and continue to saute for 4 to 5 minutes to sweat the vegetables. Add the broth, red wine, and diced tomatoes to the pot and raise the heat to high.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, add the pasta and cook for about 4 minutes, so that the pasta is still not yet fully cooked. Stir in the beans, red pepper flakes, thyme, oregano, basil, and Swiss chard and continue to cook for about 2 minutes, until the pasta is cooked al dente. Salt to taste.

*If you are in a jam and can't find pearl onions, you can get away with using the absolutely tiniest shallots you can find, or boiler onions or cipolline in place of them.

Makes about 3 quarts
Used by permission to Recipelink.com from Clarkson Potter
Source: Street Vegan by Adam Sobel