Across the world Milan is known as a fashion center and a trend-setting place in design. But, something many people don’t know about it is the hearty cuisine that goes above and beyond most Italian standards. In fact the entire Lombardy region is known for special dishes like rich risotto flavored with saffron, cornmeal bread, and nourishing osso buco. Given all this it’s no surprise that their version of minestrone soup is heartier than others and a bit extra. This Milanese Minestrone is packed with veggies and a few unexpected ingredients that give it more oomph and flavor.

The base of this soup is some sautéed onions and pork. It’s traditional to use finely chopped pancetta, but that can be difficult to find in the US so feel free to use bacon instead. This pork component depends the flavor, but it melts into the rest of the soup completely so you won’t get a bite of it at any point. There isn’t a strong tomato base for this soup, just some whole canned tomatoes, which makes it a bit unusual for a minestrone.

Once you have the base the rest of the ingredients go in at different times to get them each perfectly cooked. And, there are a lot of ingredients! Feel free to add the veggies you have on hand or the types of beans you prefer. But, whatever you add the trick to this soup to make extremely robust and filling in Milanese style is to add lots and lots of vegetables.

This recipe has onions, zucchini, and carrots just to name a few. If you have an abundance of garden produce this is an excellent way to use it up. Like many great Italian dishes this soup needs some time to cook, but it gives the flavors a chance to meld together so it’s worth the wait.

Two surprise ingredients give this soup the most flavor. One is the rind from a wedge of Parmesan. This beloved Italian cheese is strong on flavor and pretty salty, so adding the rind to the soup pot imparts it with a little creamy, umami flavor. Once you’re in the final cooking stages you can remove the rind. Then once the soup is done grate some of the Parm to go on top for even more rich flavor.

Another special ingredient in the soup is cabbage. This vegetable goes well with tomato, but it’s not a staple in other most versions of minestrone. It really works here! As we said this is a very hearty type of soup that goes above and beyond other minestrone soups.

Make Milanese Minestrone at the end of summer to use up garden veggies or in winter to keep you full and satisfied on a cold day. It’s a soup for many seasons, but always with the extra special flavor of Milanese cooking.