Fall is a great time for minestrone and soups, the comfort food of the cold season that pampers the tummy and mind. If you feel like a soup that’s easy to prepare and that tell a story of distant lands, a dish probably few of you have heard of: zastoch.
Zastoch is a borderland soup, based on pumpkin, potatoes, and beans origins of the Friulian region or actually more precisely Venezia Giulia, as its roots are in the city of Trieste. Its name in fact, deceives this provenance and demonstrates the fusion with nearby Central European cultures.
Intrigued enough to try it? Preparing it at home is easy, but it takes time: arm yourself with some large pots and get the ingredients that we suggest in the recipe below. In the gallery we are sharing some advice on combinations and variations.
Zastoch recipe
Ingredients
To prepare the zastoch, you need: 12 oz beans, 12 oz pumpkin, 12 oz potatoes, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 onion and salt to flavor.
Method
Boil the beans for about an hour and a half in cold salted water, after soaking them overnight. Then in another pot boil the water and boil the potatoes for about 40 minutes. Finally, boil the pumpkin for about 20 minutes. When the potatoes are ready, peel them and cut them into slices. Cut the pumpkin too. Now pass onto the onion: chop it finely and fry it. In the meantime, prepare some vegetable stock. In the saucepan where the onion is, add the other vegetables and salt, then the broth, and finally cook over a medium heat for about 20 minutes. Serve hot.