Soup is Life

I'm thinking about soup. Probably because I'm making it. It's a beautiful October day and we've officially launched the "season of soups and stews" as an old friend used to say. 

Here's what I like about soup - at least the soups I make. They're a perfect reflection of life's basic patterns. There's the order/chaos/order continuum. You can go by the book or you can make it up as you go along (guess which category I fall into.) You can choose to blend or stand alone. And like many of the great foods in life, soup is at its most beautiful while it's raw.

I like to make vegetable soup. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was (quite literally) born to chop. And it's cathartic to wield a large, sharp knife as long as the only flesh you encounter is that of an onion or a zucchini. Vegetable soup is the epitome of make-it-up-as-you-go-along. 

Pictured here are today's ingredients. Yes, that is a JAR of pesto you see. I'm topping the soup with pesto once it's in the bowls and I actually ran out of garlic - very rare. I happened to have this jar of back-up pesto hanging around - extremely rare. 

Other than that, you have your basics: leeks, shallots, cippolini, garlic, carrots, rutabaga, zucchini, tomatoes, beans and pasta. Full disclosure: cooked carrots make my throat constrict. When I was a little girl I would wedge myself between my mother and the stove and try to negotiate for a raw carrot instead of a cooked one, to no avail. She is not one to be held hostage by a carrot. 

But I can handle them in soup, sort of.

So you chop and you toss; you think or you don't think at all; you get everything into the pot, you cover it with a lid and you wait. Simple as that.

Chaos contained. Comfort on the horizon. Isn't that the rhythm of life?

Vegetable Soup (Un)Recipe

4 cloves garlic

3 leeks

1 sweet onion (yellow or cippolini)

2 large shallots

2-3 each yellow squash and zucchini

2 rutabega (rutabegas? rutabege?)

2 15 oz cans cannellini beans

1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes (I prefer Muir Glen; WF didn't have in stock)

1/2 lb. pasta of choice. (I like small shells or orechiette)

2-3 generous sprigs fresh thyme

Red pepper flakes to taste, about 1/8 t but you can inch it up if you want more kick

A generous splash of white wine (equivalent to a swig straight from the bottle if you were on a picnic and had forgotten the cups. That has never happened to me.)

Prepare the pasta but take it out 2 minutes before the box indicates.

(it'll continue to cook in the soup)

Carefully wash the leeks. Cut and reserve the white part only.

Chop in 1/2 inch discs.

Peel and chop onions, shallots and garlic.

Melt 2-3 T butter or olive oil or a combination of both in a large stock pan.

Add the leek, onion, shallot, garlic mixture.

Allow to cook gently on medium heat for a minute or two, then add pepper flakes, thyme and

swig of wine (for soup, not you, but nobody's looking.) Stir and continue cooking until soft. 

Add carrots and stir for a minute or two more.

Add chicken broth.

Add rutabega, zucchini and cannellini beans.

Note: I like to add a splash of sherry vinegar at this point. Umami.

Cover and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add tomatoes. (I learned this trick from Martha: before pouring the tomatoes into the soup, take scissors and go at them in the can. Easier than stabbing at them with a spoon once they're in the soup.)

Simmer for another half hour or until vegetables feel tender. 

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add pasta and turn to low. Simmer for 5 minutes and either serve immediately or take off heat until ready to serve.

Spoon it into bowls and top with a dollop of pesto (definitely fresh is best; 

that jarred stuff I used today will do in a pinch, but it's certainly not the same.)

I like it with a little cheese sprinkled on top and a hunk of herb focaccia on the side.