Stuffed pepper soup

No funny story here. Just a simple request. A friend, whom I'm pretty sure I like much better than he likes me, made a comment to make a soup that I once made for him. Compounded by the fact that I will see said friend in Clemson this weekend, I thought it was fitting to once again show him just how much I like him by making this soup. Finkie - I hope this is the one you were looking for. It's not as easy as your velveeta shells & cheese and canned chili, but that dish is just gross and this one is actually delicious.

For this soup you'll need 4 green bell peppers, one medium onion, a few cloves of garlic, fresh herbs of your choosing, about 3/4 of a pound of ground meat, a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, broth of your choosing and some little baby pasta.

First, go collect your fresh herbs. If you're lucky and smart like me, you have a backyard that's perfect for growing herbs (and a watering can that looks like a frog). We have a giant, unruly, rosemary bush. I snipped off about 2 inches of rosemary.

We also have a little herb box with some basil and greek oregano (and lavendar and sage, but I didn't use those). I cut off about 10 basil leaves and a inch of oregano.

If you're especially lucky, you'll also have adorable blue tailed lizards sunning themselves. I usually squeal at them and they run away,

Or the puppy goes after them and scares them away. Notice his summer fur cut complete with mohawk.

If you can't forage in your backyard for herbs, dried ones are okay to use. We actually have an entire garden box with peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers as well. Stay tuned for those goodies showing up later in the summer.

Now, onto chopping things up. I started with the garlic and minced two cloves.

Then I chopped the onion.

Then the peppers. I have a bone to pick with these peppers. I got them from the farmer's market at work. These were the only peppers he had and I knew they were cheaper than what I would get at the grocery store. Notice that they came individually wrapped in plastic. They are organic, I can only assume the plastic is to keep the pesticides from other veggies off these precious peppers. What gets me about this, is that most people who are into organic veggies are also into living a green life where they don't like to create excess trash. Wrapping peppers individually in plastic to keep them organic? Seems like a way to increase waste as well. There must be a better way. Anyway, I digress, off my soap box. I chopped these up into little pieces.

Now the herbs. I really like chopping/shredding fresh herbs. It makes the whole house smell so fresh. First the basil. Pile all the leaves onto each other and roll into a little basil cigarette.

Then, run your knife through the basil cigarette, creating ribbons. This technique is called chiffonade.

Now the greek oregano. I attempted to chiffonade the oregano but the leaves were tiny. So I just pulled the leaves off the stem and piled them up,

Then I ran my knife through the leaves until they were a size I liked.

Lastly, the rosemary.  I pulled the spiny little leaves off the stem and did my best to mince them. I find that rosemary leaves like to run around my cutting board, so I usually end up cussing at them or slicing a finger. Shockingly, neither of those events happened while I was making this soup.

Now for cooking, heat a large soup pot over medium heat and dump your ground meat into it. I used ground beef because I already had it in the house. The beef I used was a little fatty, but I elected to not drain the fat (side note, the Mister had some soup for lunch today and commented that it was a little creamy and couldn't pin point why. I think it was the beef fat. Not draining it was a good idea).

 Cook the meat until its done. You may be able to see the fat pools of deliciousness.

Now add the veggies.  Mix these up and cook for about ten minutes

Next, add the can of crushed tomatoes and 4 cups of broth.   I also added a bit of tomato paste because I wanted more tomato flavor.

Mix all that up and add your fresh herbs.  Now is also a good time to throw in some salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and any other seasoning you desire.  Turn up the heat, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add your baby pasta. I used pastina or little stars for those of you who didn't grow up with an Italian Nonnie and didn't realize that food items had non-Italian names until you moved away from Little Italy (aka Westerly, Rhode Island). Be very careful with the amount of pasta you add. The little pastas have an amazing property of soaking up way more liquid than you think they'd ever be able to soak. If you aren't careful, your soup will turn into a solid. I added 3/4 of a cup of pastina.

Cook the soup for 5 more minutes.  Give it a good stir before serving, the pastina tend to settle to the bottom.  I packaged my soup up for lunch so its not dressed, but this baby is yummy topped with parmesan cheese and some more basil. Enjoy!