Pasta e fagioli

I spent Christmas this year at my new in-laws house celebrating with some lovely Swiss traditions, but realized once I got home that I missed some of the Italian traditions that I'm used to from growing up in Little Italy (aka Westerly, Rhode Island). I decided today was the perfect day for some pasta e fagioli. This soup is actually inspired by a pasta e fagioli I had in Greve in Chianti on my honeymoon, a meal I proclaim was the best meal I've ever had. I also decided that today was also the perfect day to document the soup in pictures ala Carla Jeffries' fantastic blog (see link list to the right and click on the 'il piatto blu' link) and because said wonderful in-laws bought me and Brian an awesome camera and we're quite the shutter bugs these days. Kindly do not judge the mess that is my kitchen, Brian and I are starting to remodel it next week and we've pretty much mailed it in with keeping it clean. Now to the soup . . .

 First, chop up a few things: about 1/10th of a pound of pancetta into cubes, 1-2 onions diced and 3-4 garlic cloves minced. I get the pancetta from the deli and usually order a quarter pound in thick slices. The nice deli man gave me three thick slices and I used one and a half of them. I used white onions because that's all that we had in the house, but any onion other than red will do. You'll also want to drain and rinse two cans of Great Northern or Cannellini beans. Later, you'll need a sprig or two of rosemary, so you may consider getting that out now too. I have a huge rosemary bush in my backyard (another spoil from the awesome in-laws) and I highly recommend you get one too.

Next, melt one tablespoon of butter in your stock pot. I tend to be a devoted olive oil girl, but this recipe does really well with butter. Once its melted, add your pancetta. 

Cook the pancetta for 5-15 minutes depending on how fatty the cut you have is. You want to make sure a good portion of the fat is rendered. 

Once the pancetta is a little crispy, add the diced onions and minced garlic and cook for 2-4 minutes until the onions start to get a little translucent. Now is also a good time to add any other seasoning you'd like. I put in a pinch of salt, some fresh ground pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Next, add a third to half of a bottle of white wine and the rosemary sprigs. I used a sweet white, but anything white will do. The wine adds some really good flavor, so unless you're a teetotaler, I strongly suggest adding it. Cook this for about 10 minutes so that the alcohol cooks away but the flavor cooks into the veggies. Then add the beans and 4-6 cups of stock. I used chicken stock but anything but beef should taste yummy. Simmer the soup for 20-40 minutes. I like to believe that the longer you simmer, the better it tastes, but I have no idea if that's actually true.

Once everything has happily simmered for a while and the broth tastes delicious, its time to blend this baby with your trusty stick blender. First, pull out the rosemary sprigs as they can sometimes taste a little bit like a tree. You can pull a few of the rosemary leaves off and keep them in the soup, but not the entire sprig, unless you like the taste of tree. Take the soup off the heat and blend until smooth. If you don't have a stick blender, you can use a stand blender, just be sure to cool the soup a bit first (or be ready to clean up the mess you'll make if you don't).

Lastly, put the soup back over medium heat, and add about 1/2 a cup of ditalini or other small pasta. If you can't find ditalini, rigatoni could work in a pinch. Cook for 6-7 minutes, you'll want the pasta to be al dente. If you're eating or serving the soup immediately, it will be a little thin but very delicious and surprisingly hearty. If you're going to refrigerate and eat later, be prepared for it to thicken a ton and only slightly thin out when reheated. It will still be delicious. The pasta has a tendency to sink to the bottom, so when doling out portions, be sure that you're ladling from the bottom or else you'll end with a serving of all pasta and many of all broth. Enjoy!

Colorful Vegetarian Chili

It was very damp and dreary in Atlanta yesterday, which, to me, is the perfect weather for a big pot of chili. Some may argue that chili isn't exactly a soup, but its served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon, so I think its soup (though with that logic, ice cream is also soup, maybe this is faulty logic).

I have many chili recipes, most involve some sort of ground meat. I wasn't feeling like eating meat yesterday and all the fridge cases at my local Kroger seemed warm yesterday and I didn't trust the safety of anything in them, so I decided on a nice, colorful vegetarian chili.

First, chop up all your veggies. I minced four garlic cloves and one fresh jalapeno pepper. I then diced, in pretty big chunks, one yellow onion, five tomatillos, one yellow bell pepper, one red bell pepper and one green bell pepper. A note about the tomatillos, I live in a highly Hispanic part of metro Atlanta so my local grocery store carries them. They don't add too much flavor to the chili and can easily be omitted if you can't find them.

Then, cook the garlic, jalapeno and onion in your soup pot with a bit of oil until the onions are translucent. Try your best not to breathe over the soup pot, unless you want to be attacked by jalapeno fumes and have a sneezing fit. Once those are cooked, add your peppers and cook for about 5 minutes or so.

Next, add your canned goods. I like to add color so I used one can of sweet corn, one can of black beans and one can of dark red kidney beans. Make sure you drain and rinse all of these to cut down on the saltiness of them. Now, add the canned tomatoes. I used one can chili-ready diced tomatoes, one can of Mexican-style stewed tomatoes, and one can of tomato paste. The whole thing is probably looking a little thick, so add some liquid, I used one Yuengling black and tan beer because it was the best beer I had in the fridge (miller light has no place in chili). I think this would be yummy with an even darker brew, of if you're fresh out of beer, just add some water.

Now, spice it up a bit more with whatever spice you like. I used a generous portion, probably a tablespoon or more each, or ground cumin and chili pepper. I'm not a fan of black pepper and very rarely salt anything, but now would be a good time to add both pepper and salt if you like.

Bring this to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir it every once in a while. I simmered for 30-45 minutes to be sure the beer taste cooked out, all the flavors mingled together and because I was making cookies at the same time and didn't have time to stop and eat.

Serve in your favorite soup bowl topped with various yummy additions such as shredded cheddar cheese, crushed tortilla chips, or even crushed Goldfish crackers (just a few of my favorites). Or leave it naked, its delicious either way. Be sure to admire its lovely mix of colors since it really is a pretty soup.

Chicken Satay Soup

I fully intended to take pictures of this gem but Brian thought that the Clemson-Georgia Tech game in Tampa was a more appropriate place for the camera. Alas, hopefully words will adequately describe the soup.

Brian and I eat a lot of Asian-inspired food, usually some sort of stir-fry concoction thrown together because its quick. I put together this soup from a bunch of leftovers we had, but I'll describe it as if it was from scratch since I'm not going to assume anyone has these leftovers in his or her fridge.

First make a satay-like sauce, or really any Asian-like sauce with peanut butter. The one Brian made included peanut butter, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper flake. Usually satay sauce usually includes coconut milk, but we didn't have any of that. Just make the sauce to taste, you'll need about a half cup.

Then, cook your chicken in the satay sauce. I used leftover grilled chicken tenderloins. Grilling the chicken adds another dimension of flavor that is delightful, but its perfectly fine to just cook the chicken in a with the satay sauce anyway that's easy for you. You'll ultimately want the chicken in bite sized pieces but you don't necessarily have to chop it before cooking.

Next, mince some garlic and fresh ginger root. I used about 3 cloves of garlic because I ♥ garlic and maybe an inch of ginger root. The ginger really spices this soup up, so you don't want to leave it out.

Then, amass your vegetables. I used 1 julienned red pepper, 3 chopped celery stalks, 1 diced onion, 1 chopped bunch of bok choy, a handful of snow or snap peas and 3 sliced carrots.

Lastly, defrost, steam or otherwise cook 4 to 6 store-bought pot stickers, flavor of your choosing. If you can't find these at your local grocery store (I should know, the "nice" Publix near me doesn't stock them) you can always find them at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

Now, put this baby together. In a stock pot, an 8 quart will be plenty of space, cook your garlic, ginger and veggies. I left mine a bit crisp-tender because I like them a bit crunchy. Add your cooked satay chicken. Stir it all up and add as much stock as you'd like. I think this soup does well if its a bit thin, since the satay sauce makes for tasty broth. Bring this to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Let it simmer for about 10-20 minutes and give it a taste. If the broth seems a bit dull, add more satay sauce if you have any left or maybe some soy sauce. Once you like the taste of the broth, add in the cooked pot stickers. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so and enjoy! Each soup serving should have one pot sticker in it.

Sweet Potato-Pumpkin-Chipotle Soup

Like many Americans, I found myself over-run with leftovers this past weekend. Instead of boring turkey-stuffing-cranberry sauce sandwiches, I whipped up this gem instead.

This one had some pre-planning involved and (as with all good soups) some serendipity.

Brian was making sweet potatoes complete with pecan-marshmallow topping as a side, but all the potatoes didn't fit in my casserole dish. I saved about a cup and half of the delicious sweet potato-butter-cream-brown sugar mix.

Brian was also making pumpkin gelato (clearly Brian should also have his own food blog). Due to some random pumpkin shortage in Georgia, we could only find a giant can of pumpkin so there was plenty left over for me, probably another cup and a half.

I had the foresight to keep the turkey carcass and turned it into delicious turkey stock. This was my first attempt at making stock and I'm not sure why I don't do it more often. I took the turkey carcass, some celery, two onions, a few cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, and some thyme. Covered it all with water and simmered it for four hours. You'll need a big stock pot for this and, if you want to make your life easy, one of those fantastic multi-pot inserts useful for draining pasta. This will make a ton of stock so make sure you have freezer space for it, or want to use it all within a week.

Now for the soup: In a large pot (I used an 8 quart), mix together the pumpkin and sweet potato. I like food spicy and had some leftover chipotles in adobo in my fridge so I added three chipotles and some of the adobo sauce and a pinch of cumin. Stir this up a bit. Add in as much stock as you'd like. I added about 4 cups since I didn't want the soup terribly thin. I added a pinch of salt, but if you're using canned stock this might be unnecessary. To get the chipotles chopped up and worked into the soup, I used a hand blender. No hand blender? You could either chop up the chipotles before adding them to the soup or use your blender to mix it up. If you're using the blender, make sure you let the soup cool a bit first and only fill the blender about half way, unless you like to clean up messes. Simmer until its heated through and enjoy!