It is so cold in Chicago right now and after a week of eating frozen waffles, almond butter and jelly sandwiches and soy nuggets, I decided it was time for some real, unprocessed food.  A trip to Trader Joe’s later and I had this:

Nothing makes me feel more like, well, me than cooking.  There’s just something about fare qualcosa da niente (making something out of nothing) that gives me a sense of comfort.  With Tony Bennett Radio on Pandora and my new Cutco knives that my mom got me for Christmas, I set to work making minestrone.

I rarely use recipes while cooking.  I think that’s what I love about it–there’s so much room to create.  In my opinion, with fresh ingredients and some spices, you can make anything.  Especially soup.  I actually kept track of what I did this time so here’s the recipe:

3 large carrots

1 onion

2 small zucchini

2 potatoes

1 heart of celery

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can red kidney beans

small shell pasta

1 large box of organic vegetable broth (+ 1/2 a refill of water)

copious amounts of basil

a few large pinches of Italian Seasoning (my personal fav: Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix )

I sauteed the onion in extra virgin olive oil and garlic until it was slightly soft and then added the carrot and potato.  Then, I added the rest of the ingredients and let it cook until the potatoes and carrots were a desired softness.  And added salt, pepper and more spices as needed.  And basil.  Personally, I don’t think one can ever have enough basil in life.  Never mind that I killed not 1, not 2 but 3 basil plants last summer.  I love the smell, taste and feel of basil and would put it on my cereal if I could.

About an hour and some stirring later, I had this:

Hot soup on a cold night…I can’t think of anything better.