My Summer Soup has a name and it's "Pistou"!

I love making fresh vegetable soup with a mix of beautiful seasonal veggies.  I had no idea that the product of my mornings trip to the farmer's market is a specialty in Nice, France.  You see, I belong in France!


You can get creative with the ingredients and ratios.  Do not make this so technical.  If you want more of one veggie than the other, go for.

I didn't use a recipe, becaue like i said, it's usually just a random combination of seasonal market finds, but here is one I found that is very similar and will work lovely
Cookbook: Mediterranean, a taste of the sun in 150 recipes
Ingredients:
1 small shallot, chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 boiling potato chopped
8 oz can of chopped tomatoes
5 cup vegetable stock
1 zucchini chopped
8 oz can of white beans (optional)
1 cup green beans, cut into 1/2 ince pieces
1/2 cup peas
4-6 T Pesto
1 T sun dried tomatoes
sea salt and fresh pepper
Fresh parmesan (optional)

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large pot
Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for 20 minutes
Meanwhile chop up the sun dried tomatoes and combine with the pesto, set aside
Add the green beans, peas, beans and zucchini
Season with salt and pepper
Cook until the beans and zucchini are just tender
Cruncher is better than soggy, in my opinion
Ladle the soup into individual bowls
Top with pesto and fresh parmesan

Pasta shells or rice is nice here too.  If using rice add it in the first step.  For pasta add it with the beans.

Bon Apetit!