Lentil Soup

My grandmother bought me Domenica Marchetti's three cookbooks for Christmas and this lentil soup is the second recipe I have tried from them. (The first was her recipe for fresh pasta, which I made before the New Year and didn't photograph. I made fresh ricotta ravioli with the fresh pasta and they were fantastic; I will be making them again.) I am drawn to Ms. Marchetti not only because of her Italian heritage, but also because she lives near me in Virginia and she is a good storyteller. On her blog, in her articles for the Washington Post, and in the introductions to her recipes in her cookbooks, she shares a part of her life that makes the recipe that more intriguing.

I love lentils and had an extremely disappointing bowl of lentil soup at a restaurant recently, so I decided that I needed to make a batch to make up for it. (For other delicious lentil dishes, see here, here, here, here, and here.) Ms. Marchetti's recipe for lentil soup is in her cookbook, The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy, and can be found in this interview with her in Northern Virginia magazine.

This soup is a keeper. It is simple, delicious, healthy and the best part of all: the ingredients maintained their integrity throughout the cooking process. I hate mush, so was delighted when after simmering for 45 minutes, all of the ingredients were still recognizable. I didn't make the croutons she recommends for the soup, but MM's Aunt Ann had sent us home with a bag of oyster crackers this past weekend, and they added the perfect amount of crunch and salt to the soup.

Winter Greens Soup

Work has been so crazy the past two weeks that I haven't felt like cooking when I finally get home from the office and I have been worried that all of my CSA produce will turn slimy and smelly, resulting in a one way ticket to the trash can. Last night, I decided this needed to change. I poured a glass of wine (a delightful Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon), cranked some music and started cooking!

My first priority was to do something with last week's kale and collards (especially because I got more this week). I found this soup recipe on the LA Times website and thought it sounded like a good starting point. I adapted the soup to use what I had on hand and I used vegetable broth, instead of water, because when you start dinner at 7:45pm, you don't have an hour to spare for soup simmering!

I was extremely happy with the results; the tiny amount of rosemary adds a large amount of flavor, so don't leave it out.

Winter Greens Soup
Adapted from the LA Times

Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
10 cups winter greens (kale, collards, mustard, chard, etc) de-ribbed and chopped
4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
2 cups water
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. In a large, heavy soup pot (Dutch oven), warm the olive oil over medium low heat. Add the onion and carrots, cover and cook until softened, about 12-15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.

2. Add the greens, a handful or two at a time, giving them time to soften slightly before you add the next handful. After all the greens have been incorporated, add the vegetable broth, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the rosemary and chickpeas. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes or until the greens are tender.

3. Stir in 1/3 cup cheese, season with salt and pepper and serve, adding more cheese to the individual bowls. (Be warned, soup that has been simmering in a cast iron pot for 30 minutes is HOT, please don't burn your tongue like I did. It hurts.)

Beef and Butternut Squash Stew

Let's get this out of the way in the beginning: the end result of this dish is not what I would typically consider a stew. It is much too brothy to be a stew. I would call it a soup. Semantics aside, this was very tasty, hearty and warming on a cool October night.

I had my friends (and neighbors), Nicole and Joe, over for dinner this past weekend and I was craving pot roast. When I was flipping through Giada's Kitchen, I saw this recipe for Beef and Butternut Squash Stew and thought, well, that would be a good way to use the butternut squash from this week's CSA. (A note about the squash: I usually dread cutting butternut squash because they are large and tough, but these babies were a manageable size, easy to peel and easy to cut into.)

While the stew turned out well, it could have used more vegetables. I actually found myself searching for carrots that I knew were not in the bowl. And when I had it leftover at work the next day, I couldn't help but think that barley, or some other grain, would enhance the dish and soak up the remaining broth.

In case anyone is wondering what we had along side the stew, I pan-fried a can of chickpeas and threw them on top of the CSA salad mix and made Ina Garten's Vinaigrette for Green Salad (I halved it and omitted the garlic). Giada recommends serving this stew with crusty bread, and I thought, well, we can't have bread without roasted garlic butter! I first wrote about roasted garlic butter in June, but this time I roasted 6 heads of CSA garlic for 8 tablespoons of butter. (The CSA garlic only has between 4-5 cloves in each head.)  All in all, it was a great dinner!

Pasta e Fagioli

The cat bowls never get old!

The decision to make this dish was in the same vein of the previous post: vegetarian and from a food magazine. This hearty recipe for pasta e fagioli comes from the December 2010 issue of Everyday Food.

I was super impressed at how flavorful this soup is. I followed the advice of the recipe header and used 3 cups of vegetable broth so it would be more soup-like. Do not leave out the Parmigiano-Reggiano rind - it adds so much flavor! (I have had two rinds in my freezer for months and was excited to finally use one!) I also added about 1/4 cup mascarpone at the end because it was sitting in my fridge just screaming to be used. If I made this again I would probably only use two celery stalks, but that is just because I don't like celery.