James Silverton > wrote:

> I wondered about that too since most Minestrone recipes that I know of
> include some animal protein, sometimes salt pork. Is "Classic"
> Minestrone soup a vegetarian dish or not?

There is really no such thing as "classic" minestrone, as there are many
regional variations - and none of them is a set-in-stone recipe, merely
a blueprint. Generally speaking, minestrone is a thick vegetable-based
soup which nearly always contains at least one kind of beans. This is
about the only commonality. Minestrone can be totally vegetarian or it
can contain one or more kinds of meat and can be cooked with meat or
chicken broth. In the Abruzzi, minestrone abruzzese tends to be made
with pig's head. In Florence and generally Tuscany, minestrone toscano
can be made with several kinds of beans or a mix of beans, peas and
lentils, sometimes up to a dozen different varieties. They may use
white cabbage, Savoy cabbage, or cavolo nero (Tuscan black cabbage).
They may or may not add some kind of pasta and/or potatoes, or sometimes
rice. Sometimes pearl barley is used instead or in addition. In Milan,
in minestrone alla milanese, pasta is liable to be replaced with rice,
particularly of the risotto type. In Liguria, minestrone alla genovese
is made with pesto.

Victor