Barley minestrone with cannellini beans and pesto

The precious Minestrone is seasoned with roasted fennel and star anise, slightly tied with risotto rice and served with grape seed oil pesto.

Ingredients for 8 servings
• 150 g medium-sized grains
• Salt, pepper
• 20g basil
• 100ml grapeseed oil
• 10g finely grated ital. Hard cheese
• 500 g vine tomatoes
• 120g celery
• 180g bunched carrots 1 small zucchini, (150 g)
• 1 red chili pepper
• 1 can of beans Cannellini-, (400 g, failing that, small white beans)
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fennel
• 60g risotto rice
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 star anise

Time: 30 min plus cooking time 1 hour

Preparation

1. Rinse barley in a colander, drain and cook about 20 minutes until soft in plenty of salted water. Pour barley into a sieve, rinse and drain well. Basil leaves plucked, blanch in boiling salted water, rinse in a colander, and squeeze out. Puree basil in a tall jug with grape seed oil finely, season with salt and pepper. Stir in the grated cheese.


2. Cut the stalks from the tomatoes, diced tomatoes coarsely. Celery cleaning, dethreading and small cubes. Make celery leaves in cold water aside. Clean, peel and dice also small carrots. Zucchini brush, along eighths and dice small. Chili clean and cut into thin rings. Pour beans into a colander, rinse and drain well.

3. 3 tablespoons olive oil in a saucepan, fennel and chilli in it is not too strong heat simmer 2 minutes. Tomato and rice admit and cook 5 minutes. Tomato puree and fry with stirring for 30 seconds. Mix with 1 L of cold water, cover and cook over medium heat 20 minutes. Fond tomatoes pour through a fine sieve into a second pot and coat well. Heat the remaining oil, celery, carrot and zucchini sauté it is not too high heat for 2-3 minutes, season with salt. Tomato stock and star anise admit and covered about 15 minutes over low heat boil. Remove before serving star anise. Celery Green drain, give the pearl barley and beans to minestrone, bring to a boil. Serve with the basil pesto.

Additional tips for preparation

The rice in tomato stock are the minestrone a slight binding. For a spicier taste the Italians love to cook with a piece of bark from the Parmesan. Groats of the almost forgotten the hearty rural cuisine have long been rediscovered by top chefs. My other name, "rolled barley," reveals how barley arise: by polishing the grains lose their husks, are round and mild taste. The finest are pearl barley.

Nutritional information per serving: 308 kcal
• 7 grams protein
• 18 g fat
• 28 g carbohydrates