Light Garden Ribollita

By definition, this soup is not technically Ribollita because I did not add any stale bread which is the heart of Ribollita, a tasty 'peasant' soup from central Italy. I did, however, choose to eat char-grilled bread as an accompaniment so you could just say I ate the bread 'without' rather than 'within'. It's a question of choice. Some might say that it's clearly a minestrone - but with no pasta added that's not quite true either! Anyway, who cares about categorisation? It's just a healthy, tasty soup based on things that needed eating up in the fridge (celery and fennel), some larder staples (tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, tinned pulses) and some fresh stuff straight from the garden (chard and herbs). It can be as flexible as you like.

These are the sort of ingredients you will need for a good large saucepan-ful of soup:-

200g chopped tomatoes (tinned or fresh)

Teaspoon of tomato purée

300g or 400g tin of borlotti beans (or cannellini beans, whichever you have to hand)

750ml chicken or vegetable stock (I used 400ml of homemade and 350ml of stock cube based stock)

Approx half a fennel bulb, sliced and chopped)

Approx 2 sticks of trimmed celery, sliced and chopped

2 small carrots, peeled and grated

1 banana shallot peeled, sliced and chopped (a small onion, white or red would do just as well)

Generous amounts of olive oil (I used a mixture of extra virgin olive oil with a good grassy flavour, some lemon oil, basil oil and rosemary oil) and a spray or two of Lurpak's 'cook's range' cooking mist.

Salt and pepper

Large bunch of chard, leaves and stalks, sliced and chopped

Large handful of fresh herbs - various types of thyme, rosemary, chives, mint, sage and sorrel.

Grated Parmesan

Firstly you need to put the oil and butter spray in a heavy based saucepan to warm up before adding the chopped shallot, fennel and celery. Once they have softened, add the grated carrot and the tomato purée. After another minute or two, add the sliced and chopped chard (which I picked from my own supplies), and then put in the tomatoes and the drained can of borlotti beans. Next add the stock and allow it all to simmer for 10 minutes or so. Meanwhile collect up some fresh herbs if you have them and chop them all up (but if you don't, then sprinkle in some dried ones) and add them to the soup. Leave to simmer for another 10 minutes.

If you have an Aga, toast some ciabatta or similar bread (I had some pumpkin seed bread from Tesco) so that is slightly charred and then put a slug of olive oil on it when it's still warm and a sprinkle of sea salt. (This can be achieved in the grill as well.)

Finally add a generous amount of freshly grated Parmesan (about a cupful) before serving into bowls. Splash on some more good olive oil and another handful of grated Parmesan and you have a chunky, flavoursome, satisfying, healthy lunch.