Minestrone

It's not really spring weather yet in these parts so I was craving some kind of hot soup, but not my usual creamy soups because after all it isn't winter.  I've never made minestrone soup before and I always thought it must be hard so I guess that is why I stayed away from it, but I gave it a try:

You'll need:
1 bay leaf
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 carrots
3 celery
1 zucchini
1 potato
about 4 cups of chicken broth
one can of crushed tomatoes
salt/pepper to taste

First chop up one onion, 3 carrots, 3 celery and zucchini and put them together in your pot with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and let them cook for 10 minutes, chop up your potato and 3 cloves of garlic and add them to your pot, along with your bay leaf and let them cook another 5 or so minutes, adding more olive oil if needed.  Then add your can of crushed tomatoes and about 4 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil, cook until veggies are to your liking, add salt and pepper to taste.

I cooked my pasta in the soup and I found it sucked up a lot of the stock, so I actually don't advice doing that, I would keep some cooked pasta on the side and add it as you need.  You can also play with this recipe of course, adding more veggies, using veggie stock, etc.