Pasta soup

This is one of those hearty feel good soup recipes that is full of vitamins and minerals and can be eaten as a meal on its own. To make fun for the kids you can use alphabet noodles. This pasta soup has a really rich and homely flavour.. it has become one of my all time favorite soup recipes.

What you need

75g finely chopped bacon
1 large onion finely chopped
2 or 3 celery sticks chopped
2 carrots chopped
Palm of chopped flat leaf parsley
50ml olive oil
550g potatoes diced small
1 large tomato chopped small
5 cups vegetable stock
100g spaghetti broken into small pieces(or any pasta really)
Palm of pecorino or parmesan cheese

The process

In a large pot over a medium heat add a little olive oil, add the onion, carrots, celery, parsley and bacon. Cook until the onion is soft. Stir around and ensure that the onion does not brown.

Add the potatoes, tomatoes and the stock, increase the heat bringing it to the boil, reduce heat, cover the pot and simmer for around 20 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Taste the soup at this stage and add salt if necessary.

Add the broken spaghetti pieces and simmer until the spaghetti is al dente. This should be around 6 minutes but taste from time to time to make sure.

Add the cheese and served with garlic bread. You are going to love it.

I sometime add a little cheese to the garlic bread and pop it under the grill for a few seconds, not for the health conscious but bloody marvelous I tell you. Make yourself some herb butters with garlic for anytime garlic bread.