A soupcon more on soups

Truth is I could write a book on soups. (Anyone like to pay me to take a sabbatical?)
The hotel owners are Italian and somewhat anal, so Thursday is Minestrone day (Friday is Clam Chowder, of course, groan!) At least I have the opportunity to be creative Mon through Wed.
There was a time when I used canned tomato products in minestrone, but not anymore. With canned products, no matter how good they are, you cannot escape the suspicion that you are eating a thinned out marinara sauce with vegetables added. So I take the time to dice fresh tomatoes. As always I start with my diced onions, carrot & celery (no pureeing today) coloring on low heat. At the same time I cook the white beans separately (Cannelini in this case,which I soaked overnight).
When my aromatic vegetables are nicely colored, I add a little minced garlic, cook that for a couple of minutes then add the diced tomatoes and a little Italian seasoning and let that cook down until the tomatoes release their moisture. At that point, the next additions are personal preference. I usually add diced zucchini, sliced mushrooms and a little chopped cabbage (green peas will go in at the end. I think it's a crime to cook peas any more than absolutely necessary. I prefer to thaw them and warm them and that's it.)
If I'm vague on quantities on all this, it's because I think you should experiment to find out what you like and how much of it. Diced, cooked potatoes are good, so is turnip. So often in cooking, consistency is lauded as a virtue. But if you're consistent you'll never get any better. Consistency is the enemy of improvement. In our restaurant we are obliged to be consistent: consistently good. But we only arrived at that by experimentation.
I had some roasted red pepper left over from quiche I made for the breakfast buffet, so I threw that in too. Of course, one of the owners, the most vocal one, doesn't like bell peppers or Italian seasoning and is quick to tell me so. I tell him he's anal and a disgrace to his race. He laughs, fortunately, but I'm too old to kowtow.
Now in goes the chicken stock. Even water is fine at this point: there's plenty of flavor in that pot. The cooked beans can go in now, also. Bring the whole mess to a boil, then let simmer so all the flavors can blend. At no point have I mentioned pasta which is an essential for minestrone. I cook separately a small amount of firm-bodied pasta such as penne, take it off the heat before it's fully cooked and cool it under cold water, then cut it into small pieces to be added at the end. If you add large-sized pasta earlier in the cooking process it will absorb too much liquid and you will wind up with a pot full of very mushy, bloated pasta, vegetables and not much liquid. This is especially important for me because that soup is going to sit in a soup well for several hours.
Add the peas and let simmer for a little longer, turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste, then add the cut pasta. Done! Enjoy!

Cooking Magazines: There are lots out there, some of them more coffee table fare to impress your houseguests than anything else. But, honestly, there's only one cooking magazine you really need and that's "Cooks Illustrated". It's un-glossy, contains no advertising, only useful information about food and cooking techniques, well-researched and tested recipes and honest reviews of cooking equipment. It's always a pleasure to read and always inspires me with new recipes. Also check out their TV show, "America's Test Kitchen", usually found on PBS. And they're not paying me to say this. They don't even know I exist!