The days are getting shorter, the light is paler and there’s a definite chill in the air. Winter is coming and that means perfect weather for soup.

Proper, hearty (and healthy) soup made from fresh vegetables and simmered gently on the stove top, filling the house with a gorgeous aroma that makes you salivate the minute you walk through the door. Mmmmm, so good you can hardly wait to eat it with a few slices of crusty bread.

We make a lot of soup in winter but the all-time favourite would have to be minestrone. It’s a delicious way to dish up a big serve of vegetables. The leftovers are even better the next day and it also keeps well in the freezer.

We can’t take full credit for it. It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe but, over time, we’ve adjusted the quantities to suit our taste.

1 tbs olive oil
6 slices rindless shortcut bacon, chopped
1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 bulb fennel, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ a bunch basil, leaves and green stalks chopped
800g canned Roma tomatoes
175ml red wine
2 zucchinis, chopped
3 to 4 leaves silverbeet, roughly chopped stalks and all
400g canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
500ml chicken stock
2 handfuls of short pasta
Parmesan cheese to serve

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and add the chopped bacon. Fry gently for a minute then add onion, carrots, celery, fennel, garlic and basil. On a very low heat and with the lid slightly ajar, allow the bacon and vegetables to sweat for around 20 minutes until soft. The heat should be low enough that nothing browns.

Add the zucchini, tomatoes and wine, and simmer gently until it thickens slightly. Add the silverbeet, chicken stock, cannellini beans and pasta. Simmer until the pasta is cooked.

When ready, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

It is a quick salad to make and the flavours and textures make it a true delight to eat. We use gorgonzola dolce for the dish, which is a bit milder than the more pungent gorgonzola piccante. Each individual ingredient is beautiful to eat on its own but, when small quantities of each are combined on the fork, they are sublime.

3 pears, cored and sliced (we used corella pears)
1 fennel bulb, sliced
20g butter
200g gorgonzola
9 slices prosciutto
Watercress
Rocket
Small interesting leaves and flowers, such as chervil, chives, chive flowers, nasturtium, etc.

Serves 6

On the serving plates arrange the watercress, rocket and chervil and set aside.

Next, lay the prosciutto on baking paper on a shallow tray and place under a grill for a couple of moments until crispy. Set aside. Be careful as the grill will burn the prosciutto if it is under for too long.

Grab a wok or large frying pan and melt the butter in it. Add the sliced pear and fennel. Stir-fry for about 4 minutes over a medium heat until they are golden and starting to soften. Set aside for a moment and allow to cool so that they will not bruise the salad leaves then placed on top. Note: don’t let them cool too much as they are beautiful with the salad when they are still warm.

Arrange the pear and fennel slices on top of the leaves, top with the crispy prosciutto and broken chunks of gorgonzola. Carefully arrange the decorative edible flowers around the plates.

We enjoyed eating the salad with a glass of 10 year old merlot. Beautiful!