Wash and chop all the vegetables (onion, leek, celery, carrot, zucchini, potato, and green beans) into pieces roughly the same size, between ½ and 1 inch. Mince the garlic. Pull the thyme and rosemary (if using fresh) and parsley off their stems, mince the parsley and crush the rest into the small bowl or ramekin. Rinse the beans and set aside.

Heat the oil in the pot. Add the chopped onion, leek, celery and ½ the minced garlic (2 cloves), cooking them for about 10 minutes until the vegetables soften. Add the carrots, potato and herbs, continuing to cook the vegetables for about 2-3 minutes until they are thoroughly mixed and the newly added ones begin to shine.

Add the bay leaf and the hot water. (I heated the water in the microwave until quite hot but not boiling.). Simmer the soup for 8-10 minutes until the carrots and potatoes are soft.

While the soup is simmering, make the pistou. Do that by either pounding or processing the remaining 2 cloves of minced garlic, the fresh basil (torn into pieces), the grated parmesan, and the tomato paste. Then dribble in the 3 tablespoons of olive oil mixing until you get a paste and set aside.

Now back to the soup au pistou. Add salt (about ½ teaspoon), freshly ground pepper and the pasta/noodles. Simmer the soup until the pasta/noodles are cooked. As a ballpark, figure another 5 minutes if the pasta/noodles would normally take 8 - 10 minutes to fully cook but slightly less time if they would normally fully cook in less than 8 minutes. Then add the canned and green beans and simmer the soup another 4-5 minutes. Finally, add the frozen corn and stir for a minute or so to mix everything and warm the corn.

Serve immediately with the pistou and bread, preferably a baguette or a boule with a nice crust. If you refrigerate the soup and serve it later, the pasta and beans will absorb much of the liquid. In that case, add more hot water or broth when you reheat it, or enjoy it as a vegetable stew.