Pumpkin and bean soup with parsley pesto bread

Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 1 hour

Serves 6

If you don’t want to make the bread, just make the pesto and spoon some on to each serving of soup, or offer a bowl of it at the table.

It’s a good idea to keep Parmesan rinds. They give such an intense umami flavour to soups. The soup itself, apart from the pumpkin, is pretty much a storecupboard recipe (you can use carrots if you don’t have pumpkin).

INGREDIENTS For the pesto

– 40g parsley leaves – 50g walnuts

– 25g pine nuts

– 2 garlic cloves,

chopped

– 75g Parmesan, grated – 150ml extra-virgin

olive oil

For the soup and bread

– 3 tbsp extra-virgin

olive oil

–1leek

– 1 onion, finely chopped – 1 celery stick, finely

chopped

– 265g pumpkin or butternut squash flesh, cut into 2cm chunks

– 2 garlic cloves, grated

to a purée

– 1 litre chicken or

vegetable stock

– 2 tbsp tomato purée – 50g Parmesan rind (or less if you don’t have much)

– 1 x 400g tin cannellini

beans, drained

– 30g orzo

– 1 large baguette

– 50g butter

– 2 tbsp chopped parsley

METHOD

Make the pesto first so that it’s ready. Put everything except the extra-virgin olive oil in a food processor. Blend while gradually adding the olive oil. Season and whizz again.

Remove the outer leaves of the leek and trim the top and the base ( getting rid of the greenest coarse parts at the top). Slice into rounds about 3cm in length.

Heat the oil and add the leek, onion, celery and pumpkin. Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, then add the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the stock, tomato purée and Parmesan rind. Bring up to the boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. The pumpkin should be soft. Add the beans and the orzo and season.

Simmer for another 8 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Look for the Parmesan rind and scoop it out.

Making the parsley pesto bread is like making garlic bread. Heat the oven to 220C / 210C fan/gas mark 7. Cut the baguette into slices without cutting right the way through. Set this on a piece of foil big enough to wrap around it. Put butter and some pesto in between the slices. Pull the foil up to cover.

Put on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Serve with the soup, scattered with parsley.