An Australian making Italian food with Canadian bacon in an American kitchen while listening to Britpop

As all my roommates have been absent until today, I've had 3 lovely, lazy, relaxing days in New Paltz which are welcome after the hustle bustle madness of NYC.

One of the things I was hankering to do but knew I needed to do on a solo mission was seriously check out the supermarket. Despite having delicious pizza from a place around the corner called Grimaldi's I am determined not to start eating take out for every other meal as seems to be so commonplace in this country. For this to be I needed to know what resources I have at my disposal.

So I hiked down to the local Stop&Shop, which despite sounding like a convenience store you might just Stop in & Shop for something you'd forgotten, like milk, it is actually a gigantic mega emporium of groceries with a complete pharmacy and florist inside. 

I had nothing to do with the rest of the day and a shopping list of 3 items; sage, Lady Grey tea and chicken stock so I double knotted my laces and set off into the fray.

It was mental! I had to stop every few minutes and stare at the lining of my handbag to stop myself from hyperventilating. There was just so much food!!! Food we just don't know about in Australia! Food like Texas Toast and cheese in a can and albacore and chocolate coated pretzels! 

And not only is there so much more food, there is also so much more choice of food. If you want to get soup, you have a good 12 shelves to scan. I decided it would be quicker to make my own!

So homeward bound with a few more things than planned in my bag

How did they get in my basket? And then my bag? And then my mouth?

and I set about making my first ever pot of minestrone in the US.

Two things the supermarket did not have; 1) Convincing Tim Tams

Not even close! Everyone know Tim Tams come in brown packages.

and 2) bacon hocks. 

I had learnt from my first cooking adventure in the US; fettucine carbonara in Queens (story and recipe maybe to follow, we'll see, we'll see) that American bacon is a bit flimsy for cooking purposes so I used Canadian bacon which is thicker.

I make this minestrone when I’m feeling happy or when I’m feeling sad or when I’m feeling sick or if I have a big assignment due or when someone has had a baby or because it’s a day ending in ‘y’. Any excuse really.

You can make whatever adjustments to this that you like. Use peas instead of beans, leave out the barley, use normal bacon or pancetta instead of bacon hocks if you're in the US and that's all that's available. 

This however is my deluxe edition best ever minestrone recipe which I love, love, love for the rest of my life. 

Minestrone

1 tbsp butter	1 onion
3 cloves garlic	Sage
2 bacon hocks	2 celery stalks
2 carrots	1 potato
1 tbsp tomato paste	400g tin chopped tomato
400g tin borlotti beans	3/4 cup pearled barley
Basil	3 litres of stock
green beans	1 zucchini
½ cup small pasta

1.      Melt butter over a low heat, add a dash of olive oil and then add onion, garlic and sage

2.      Fry until soft. Add bacon hocks, celery, carrot and potatoes. Cook 5 minutes

3.      Add tomato paste and tomatoes, 

basil, 

Dried basil. OK by me.

borlotti beans and barley. Season

I hazarded a guess that Roman beans were the same as borlotti beans. I was correct.

4.      Add stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer 1-2 hours

5.      Add zucchini, green beans and pasta

6.      Cook until pasta is al dente

7.      Remove bacon hock from pot and remove any meat that falls away from the bone. Chop finely and stir through soup.

And no, sorry, there are no more pictures because by the time it was almost ready I was hopping from foot to foot and starving hungry so I gobbled it up.

All that remains!