Use 2 Types Of Canned Tomatoes For The Perfect Minestrone Soup

Classic Italian minestrone is a vegetable soup known for its rich tomatoey broth, belly-filling heartiness, and versatility. A medley of pasta, potatoes, beans, and just about any veggie you can imagine from asparagus to zucchini and kale to pumpkin, this comforting melange offers the potential for nearly infinite variations. And with all these vegetables, it packs a supercharged nutritional wallop, full of savory robust flavor.

The one thing that really makes a good minestrone soup sing is the tomatoes. Classic minestrone loves a good tomato. And with excellent reason, ripe, juicy tomatoes bring both the sweet and the savory to any dish and add a dash of tangy zip that brightens any meal. This is why, if you want to take your hearty minestrone soup to a whole new level, you'll want to double down on your tomatoey zing by using not one but two types of canned tomatoes — crushed and diced.

The reason tomatoes work so well in minestrone is that they're the magic that can make your island of misfit vegetables play nice together. Minestrone's ideal for times when resources are running low. When all you have are a few stragglers that need to be used up before they perish (those three small floppy carrots in the back of the vegetable drawer, a wrinkled pepper or two, a handful of frozen green beans, or some lightly wilty kale). But then, like a beacon of shining flavor, your eyes light upon a couple of cans of tomatoes in the pantry and you see it — minestrone simmering in a pot on the stovetop and you know — it's going to be alright. 

And what could be better than both crushed and diced canned tomatoes? Adding juicy texture and concentrated tomato flavor to every herbaceous, garlic-tinged mouthful of vegetables, pasta, and beans, providing a deeply satisfying sensory experience, all from leftover vegetable scraps. Simply add the two kinds of tomatoes to your pot of cooked veggies, along with vegetable or chicken broth, and bring to a boil before reducing to simmer. As your crushed tomatoes cook down, creating a rich tomatoey broth, the diced tomatoes will stand their ground, providing all the toothsome tomato texture you'll ever need. Now, that's amóre!