The author most likely italicizes the word minestrare in the second paragraph because it is not an English word.
Answer: Option C.
Step-by-step explanation:
The above mentioned excerpt provides an explanation of a thick soup 'Minestrone' which originated from Latin. We can see that in the sentence the author have italicized the term 'minestrare' and this is done mostly because the word is a foreign word. Minestrare is a Latin word which is not quite common. So most of the time authors usually italicize words to put an emphasis on a particular phrase or word and if the words are largely unfamiliar, as in the case of minestrare. In the excerpt, an emphasis is put on the word 'minestrare' to make readers aware about the unfamiliarity of the word.