Soup

As the days are starting to get cooler, more soup recipes are coming out in the kitchen. But soup isn't such an easy translated word from English into Italian. If you go to wordreference and do a search for soup you get three results:

1. Minestra
2. Zuppa
3. Minestrone

So whats the difference?

The answer is debatable and often comes up at the dinner table with my roomates while we're eating a delicious warm bowl of minestra/zuppa/minestrone.

Minestra: is a soup served typically as a main dish with a dry base such as pasta.

Zuppa: is a type of minestra with mostly bread and vegetables. Bread with boiled vegetables gives a semi-solid composition therefore differing from minestra.

Minestrone: again- a type of minestra except with lots of vegetables and broth. Pasta or rice can be added. This variation is known to be made with the vegetables that are available in the house, maybe not the most fresh.

I wouldn't say there really is a great difference between these- add a few more vegetables and your minestra becomes a zuppa. And we can't forget a vellutata which would be like a creamy asparagus soup or cream of potato. Who knew that a bowl of soup could be so complicated and complex?