Italian Wedding Soup and Banishment from the Kitchen
Victor cleaned the kitchen, today, while I was at work. I'm officially banished for 24 hours. He wants to relish in the unusual cleanliness of the place - the clean stove top without a bazillion burnt-on splatters... Counter tops where you can actually see the granite... Drawer fronts that aren't caked in flour...
It's not that I'm a complete slob, it's just that I use the kitchen. A lot. I wipe up and I wipe down, but... stuff spills over on the stove or in the ovens. Flour dust flies no matter how careful I am. The spoon doesn't always make the spoon rest...
My punishment is I get a clean kitchen and dinner cooked for me. I'd throw a pity-party but I'm too busy doing a happy-dance. Banishment does not suck around here!
My gruel tonight is Italian Wedding Soup. It's freezing outside - literally and figuratively - and a bowl of hot homemade soup and warm, crusty, homemade bread is just the kind of punishment I need.
So here's the soup I was forced to eat, tonight.
It's truly a difficult life I lead.
Italian Wedding Soup
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Soup
- 3 qts chicken broth
- 1 lb escarole, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Make meat balls: Mix all ingredients together and form into very small meat balls- about the size of a prize shooting marble. Place on a sheet pan off to the side.
Make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the meatballs and escarole and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the escarole is tender – about 10 minutes.
To add the egg: Whisk the eggs to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a large fork to form thin stands of egg.
Ladle into bowls and add additional grated cheese and a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.
Oh... and that crusty homemade bread?!? Victor made parmesan toast. This is the last piece.
I ate it.
Vegetable Beef Soup
One of my most favorite meals in the world is a bowl of steaming hot soup. It really is the ultimate comfort food for me. Coming from a large family, soups and stews, casseroles and the like, were standard fare. And Mom knew how to cook 'em.
Each season has its gastronomic benefits, but I think Fall may just be my favorite because soups and stews come back into fashion. They are the perfect meal when the leaves are falling and the wind is blowing them into dervish whirls.
Soups and stews don't call for recipes where I come from - they are just made with what is in the house at that moment in time. Tonight's soup is a prime example:
- beef round steak
- beef broth
- onion
- garlic
- celery
- carrots
- potatoes
- can of diced tomatoes
- can of yellow hominy
- bag of frozen mixed vegetables
- salt
- pepper
- oregano
- red wine
- hot sauce
Chop the onions, wilt them in a bit of oil, add the beef and the garlic, brown it a bit, add the wine and cook it down a bit, add the tomatoes and the broth and simmer for an hour or so until the meat starts to get tender. At this point you can add the rest of the vegetables and simmer until everything is cooked through.
Ladle into bowls, add some hot sauce and top with grated cheese, if desired. Serve with crusty bread or crackers.
That's it.
The hominy will often become a can of beans, the oregano becomes herbes d'Provence, fresh hot peppers or sambal oeleck are added if Nonna is having something else... Just stuff thrown into a pot.
It's amazing just how good - and simple - a pot of soup can be. I actually made this batch yesterday for dinner and we had it again, tonight.
It's total simplicity - and totally fulfilling.
Creamy Soup and Crusty Rolls
Victor made a great batch of soup, yesterday, whilst I was at work. One of those perfect surprises after a long shift. We had broccoli and cauliflower in the 'fridge that was needing some attention, so he threw it in a pot and made it all hot.
More or less.
Soup making is a bit more involved than that - but not by much. It's a quick and easy way to use up odds and ends in the 'fridge or cupboards that just won't make it, otherwise. Just about anything can go into the pot - and around here, it usually does.
His creamy soups - butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, et al - are all dairy-free. He gets the creaminess from pureeing a can of beans along with whatever vegetables he's added to the pot. And he's a blender blender. I use the immersion blender. He breaks out the Real McCoy.
No amounts, since it's a clean-out-the-refrigerator soup. Use what you have, add or delete as you see fit.
And while I did say it's dairy free, he will often stir in a pat of butter at the end just because...
Creamy Broccoli Soup
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Onion
- Garlic
- Canned Butter Beans
- Chicken Broth
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cayenne Pepper
Saute onion and garlic. Add broccoli and cauliflower, broth, and beans. Bring to a boil and then simmer until veggies are pretty much over-cooked.
Cool, and then blend via your favorite blending method. Be really careful if you use a blender. I've had to clean a few ceilings in my time.
Check for seasoning and add salt, pepper, and a bit of heat - cayenne works well.
Stir in a pat or two of butter, if desired.
It really was good - and there's enough for lunch, tomorrow!
Also really good were French Rolls via Martha Stewart.
Bread in it's most basic form, is nothing more than flour, water, salt, and yeast. But how those four simple items are put together can be as varied as varied can be.
These small rolls are a case in point.
These start their journey into gastronomic delight with an overnight starter. Flour, water, and a pinch of yeast, in a bowl, covered, on the counter overnight. The following day, more water, flour, yeast, and salt are added. Several risings, foldings, shapings and the final baking take place over a few hours. It's mostly unattended time.
Martha's Recipe.
The dough is wet and sticky, but follow Martha's advice and do not add more flour. You need patience and a bit of technique but the end result is a crusty - really crusty - shell with a tender interior. A perfect French bread.
I used half of the recipe for rolls. These would be perfect as sandwich rolls with hard salami and mustard - the sandwich of my youth!
I'm going to make a baguette with the other half, tomorrow.
Another great meal...
Butternut Squash Soup & Flatbread
When is a pizza not a pizza? Why, when it's a flatbread, of course!
It seems that flatbread is the new pizza - at least by restaurant definition. Pizza has traditions assigned to it - and the negative dietary connotations. Flatbread, on the other hand, can evoke anything the chef desires. With a minimum of good-quality toppings, they can outshine their pizza parlour cousins while commanding dinnerhouse prices. Not to mention appearing more nutritionally sound.
I made pizza for years. Hand-spun rounds of cheesy, saucy perfection. And while I'm sure most of you will be surprised, I was quite opinionated on what should be allowed on a pizza. I'd never in a million years put seafood other than anchovies on a pizza - but Victor had lobster on a flatbread last week that was out-of-this world fantastic. Ham and pineapple was - and is - a sacrilege. But on a flatbread?!? Eh... why not?!?
It seems that I can continue to be opinionated and still allow for new thoughts and ideas. What a concept.
I use my old standby pizza dough recipe - it's pretty much the recipe I was was making at Pirro's back in the '60s scaled back for home use. I have a La Cucina Italiana recipe that calls for a 2-day cold rise that is really good, but this one is fairly classic and works in no time.
Pizza Dough
- 1 tsp yeast
- 1 cup barely-warm water
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Mix yeast with water and let proof a few minutes. Add flour and salt and (preferably) knead for five or six minutes with a mixer using a dough hook. Slowly add olive oil while machine is running, mixing well and incorporating everything. You should end up with a soft, smooth, and elastic dough. If mixing by hand, add oil with water and knead about 10 minutes.
Roll into a ball and place in a well-oiled bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise until double in size – about an hour and a half.
Form into two balls and allow to rise, again.
Form the proofed dough into nice, round pizzas (I still hand-spin them but use whatever method works best for you.)
Top with your favorite sauce and topping and bake in a 450° oven until done.
While I generally like a 2-rise dough, you can form into balls and go for one rise, form, top, and bake - as I did with the flatbread, below.
I spread the dough with homemade Fig and Caramelized Onion Jam and then topped that with prosciutto and a sprinkling of cheese. Into a 450°F oven with a pizza stone for 20 minutes.
And then there was soup...
Butternut squash soup may be one of my all-time favorites. Victor makes such a great version that I don't even bother, anymore. I really do love a man who can cook!
The soup really is simple - but it packs a wallop of flavor. It was especially true with this batch because we knew Nonna wasn't going to be here for dinner - Victor added a couple of hot peppers from the garden.
Butternut Squash Soup
- 1 butternut squash - peeled and cubed
- 2 qts chicken broth
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 2 hot peppers
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained
- S&P
- garlic powder
Saute onion and peppers in a pat of butter. Add squash, broth, beans, garlic powder, and S&P, to taste. Simmer until squash is falling apart-tender.
Puree with an immersion blender until completely smooth.
Serve with sour cream and a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.
The beans add a creaminess to the soup without having to add cream. You can also make it with olive oil and water or vegetable broth to make it completely vegan.
No matter how you do it, it's going to come out great!
Chicken Soup For What Ails Ya...
Feed a cold, feed a fever, I always say... And on Day Three of the Cold From Hell, chicken soup is really what the Doctor ordered.
I am not sure where this one came from. I felt fine all day Monday, went to bed, and woke up about midnight with a sinus headache and the runny nose from hell. Not wishing to be too graphic, but in the dark when I woke up, I thought I had a bloody nose, it was pouring out so fast. And it went down hill from there. The runny nose turned into the cough and sore throat. And the headache continued. It may have been my body just going into shock knowing who's being inaugurated tomorrow. If I catch a cold at all, it's usually in late fall... Delayed reaction from November 8th...
Miraculously on the eve of day three, I'm actually feeling better. Gallons of liquids, and gallons of chicken soup have been doing their magic - along with copious amounts of Robitussin Extreme. And Tabasco sauce. Lots and lots of Tabasco in my soup, along with a growing Resistance. Whatever it takes, right?!?
Victor had made a huge batch of Italian Wedding Soup on Sunday, so we started off with lots of Italian Jewish Penicillin and today he made a new batch to keep me going. So far, it seems to be working - I'm not nearly as congested, sneezy, snotty, or barking like a seal.
The soup is pretty basic - chicken, broth, celery, onion, garlic, carrots, and orzo. Great stuff.
So, trivia... Do you know where the adage feed a cold starve a fever came from?
It seems that once upon a time, people thought of the body like a furnace - adding food was like adding heat, so if you had a cold you stoked the fire and added heat - and if you had a fever, you were already hot so you took the heat source away to cool down.
This was before we knew about stem cells and stuff. Back in the Flat-Earth Society Days we're heading back into.
Lentil Soup
As much as I want it to be, it's not snowing.
I know, I know... snow is a hassle and it makes it difficult to get around, but I really do like it. We're going through unseasonably warm weather right now which is really putting a crimp in my seasonal cooking. I want soups and stews and it's prit-near grilling weather out there.
What's a boy to do?!?
Well, for one, I got another propane tank for the grill - and I made a pot of Lentil Soup. I'm covering all bases.
The soup was a clean-out-the-refrigerator-and-freezer soup. I had a ham bone and a couple of containers of frozen turkey stock and I had some carrots and celery that had seen better days - and about a third of a head of cauliflower I bought a couple of weeks ago. The cauliflower was huge - a real commitment - and I had cooked it for at least three meals - but still had a ton left over. I just cut it up and added it to the broth and then hit it with the immersion blender. No one knew it was there...
The end result was pretty good - and made all the better by the bread Victor made - a spin on his pepperoni bread. He took some nduja - a spicy salame spread - and peppers I had canned this summer and made one hellava spicy bread.
It was seriously good and was perfect for dunking into the soup!
So cold weather or not, we're eating like it is - and loving it.
And I think there's gelato for dessert...
Italian Wedding Soup and Fresh Bread
The Pope is in town so I thought I'd bake some bread in case he stopped by and wanted to feed the neighborhood, or something. Victor made soup - Italian Wedding Soup - because even though the Pope is from Argentina, his father was born in Italy and his mother's parents were born in Italy - and you know how Italians are around here... if your grandparents, great-grandparents, or great-great-grandparents were born in Italy - you're Italian. End of discussion. We thought Wedding Soup was fitting because he was here for the World Meeting of Families, not to mention we have an abundance of greens in our garden, right now!
We decided to stay out here in 'burbia instead of trekking into the city. I just couldn't imagine dealing with the crowds, barricades, security checkpoints, and all that. Even after a fun and uplifting day, I imagine I would be a cranky guy trying to get my SEPTA train back home, tonight.
And speaking of home... the garden has gone crazy! We planted lots of fall greens and they are really coming through! Tomorrow night I'm cooking up New Zealand Spinach, and some of the beets are looking like they're almost ready. Fun, indeed!
The bread, today, was my favorite Pane Pugliese. I have been making this bread for nigh on 35 years. It really is one of my favorite breads and it never - ever - fails. I try to keep a biga on hand for those almost-spur-of-of-the-moment loaves of bread since it needs to be made a day in advance. This was concept-to-table in 4 hours.
And while the dough was rising, Victor was making soup.
This is such a great soup. Victor also made fresh chicken stock from the bird I roasted the other night so it is really homemade!
Italian Wedding Soup
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Soup
- 3 qts chicken broth
- 1 lb escarole, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Make meat balls: Mix all ingredients together and form into very small meat balls- about the size of a prize shooting marble. Place on a sheet pan off to the side.
Make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the meatballs and escarole and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the escarole is tender – about 10 minutes.
To add the egg: Whisk the eggs to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a large fork to form thin stands of egg.
Ladle into bowls and add additional grated cheese and a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.
The soup is deeply satisfying and made all the better with crusty bread. And... there's enough left over for lunch, tomorrow.
'Tis a good day, indeed!
Bean Soup
I did a bit of cleaning out the cabinets last night while making my shopping list for today. My shopping list is always for the things I actually need. Whilst shopping, I will also peruse the aisles and pick up things I want. Things that are fresh, new, or otherwise just catch my eye and my imagination.
I've always been a lover of beans and would make a pot regularly. Alas, when Nonna moved in, she told me she doesn't really care for beans, so my bean days kinda stopped. My bean-buying, however, didn't. I'd still pick up a bag of dried beans now and again - and toss them up to the top shelf with the rest of them. At one point I had five pounds of beans up there. After today, I'm down to one. I've been sneaking them into soups and other dishes, but with fresh ham bones in the house, I wanted good ol' fashioned Bean Soup.
So I made it!
I soak my beans overnight. I get a better result than doing a quick boil - especially when I'm using beans of questionable age - so last night a bag of beans went into a bowl, covered with water. I have actually brined beans from an idea from America's Test Kitchen, but wasn't overly impressed. Your mileage may vary.
Today, I drained them and placed them into a pot with a nice, meaty ham bone and covered it all with water. I added a bit of garlic powder, but that was it for seasonings.
I brought it all to a boil and then brought it down to a simmer and let it go for about 2 hours uncovered. There was plenty of water so I didn't have to worry about them boiling dry - plus, I was in and out of the kitchen.
When they were pretty much done and tender, I pulled out the bone, shredded the meat, and added it back in. I then added some ancho chili powder, chipotle powder, garlic and onion powders, along with a bit of salt and pepper.
That was it. Simple but with lots of flavor.
I made Nonna manicotti.
Gumbo and Hot Sauce
I have to admit I really do lead a charmed life. I mean... How many people have a container of homemade gumbo given to them at work? Count me as being the one!
One of the fun things about my job is that I talk about food all day long. And bein' that I've now been there over 13 years, I've gotten to know some pretty fun people. I've seen people meet, get married, have kids, and send the kids off to school. Back in my little corner of the store, it's like a mini-version of Cheers.
What's fun are the folks I get to see on a regular basis. We catch up on the basics and talk inevitably falls back to what we've been cooking, lately.
One such conversation led to turkeys and turkey gumbo.
First time I ever had gumbo was in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club. It was pretty amazing that the US Navy could come up with a damned good gumbo that fed 5000 people. The secret, of course, was the Louisiana cooks on the boat weren't following an Armed Forced Recipe Card.
But fast-forward past gumbos made with my old roommate and former brother-in-law Tim Beech and bastardized versions made with so much filé powder that they couldn't be scraped from the pot, to Saturday afternoon...
In walk two of my more favorite customers - sans kids, but with a tupperware container of turkey gumbo they had made - along with a bottle of Sauce Boss Liquid Summer hot sauce!!
I was psyched! Really psyched!
We all know I love food. I especially love food that folks make from scratch - that they love making. And sharing! We had talked about the gumbo, and here it was - in my own little hands!
Sunday I baked a loaf of bread, and Sunday night, I cooked up some rice, heated the gumbo, and feasted! It was great. Every single drop. Even Nonna licked her plate clean! It was rich, flavorful, lots of different flavors and textures... It made my Yankee heart smile.
And the hot sauce is really good, as well. it's made by a Guitar-playin' Gumbo-maker named Bill Wharton - The Sauce Boss. Heat, but with flavor. Unusual in a hot sauce. I can see a few different uses for this.
I don't have the recipe to share, but suffice to say, it was excellent.
Thanks for a great meal!
Lentil Soup
When Providence hands you a ham bone, have Victor make Lentil Soup. Well... that's what I do. You, of course, need to find your own Victor to make your soup - or make it yourself.
I'm sorry... It's not that I don't share, it's just that timing and travel and all that can get in the way of things. You know how it is...
But we did have a most excellent ham bone and whilst I was working, Victor was simmering away...
I had frozen a loaf of the crusty bread I had made a few days ago just for this. And it was the perfect accompaniment.
Lentil Soup
- 1 meaty ham bone
- 4 quarts water
- 3 cups lentils
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Tabasco
- Salt and pepper
Chop and saute onion in soup pot. When translucent, add water, bay leaves, and ham bone. Bring to boil and then simmer, uncovered, about an hour or so.
Remove bone and let cool. Cut or pull meat from bone and set aside to add to soup.
Add lentils, carrots, and celery. Cook about 20 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are tender. Add ham and simmer another 10 minutes, or so.
Add cayenne, Tabasco, and salt and pepper, to taste.
Serve with crusty bread and butter.
He used small lentils du puy but brown lentils will work just fine. Red or yellow lentils will fall apart, so, unless you want a stew, stick with a firmer lentil.
Leftovers are even better than the first time around...
Turkey Soup
When I typed the title for the post this evening, it came up as "turkey-soup-9." It seems I've posted about turkey soup a few times. I went back and started reading the posts, and they all were pretty much the same. "Best part of Thanksgiving." "Boil the carcass." Talk about originality. It seems I pretty much make the same soup over-and-over again.
I switch out ingredients, change the pasta, add beans or barley, and, generally just clean out the refrigerator, but the basic soup really is always the same.I'm either in a rut or I've achieved perfection. Personally, I'll call it perfection, because lord knows I'm never in a rut. And, it tasted pretty darned good.
Thing is, it's pretty hard to screw up a soup. All ya need to do is throw things in a pot and let Mother Nature take over. Provided you're not trying to replicate a specific flavor, taste, time, or place, you're pretty much guaranteed to have a reasonably good result.
And in not trying to replicate anything, it sorta looks like I've just replicated the past 9 years or so...
So much for not being in a rut...
Italian Wedding Soup
The benefit to working on a Sunday is dinner awaiting me when I get home. And tonight's dinner really was great - Italian Wedding Soup!
For those who may not know, Italian Wedding soup is a thin chicken broth soup with mini-meatballs and escarole. And an egg swirled in at the end.
Why is it called Italian Wedding Soup? No idea. One explanation has it as a mistranslation of "minestra maritata" - which translates to "married soup" - meaning that meat and greens go well, together. Like most of the Italian food we eat in the USofA, it may have an origin in Italy, but it's an Italian-American original.
Victor has been making this as long as I've known him. Other than having to make a bazillion little meatballs, it's really a simple soup. And it really packs a wallop with flavor.
Italian Wedding Soup
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Soup
- 3 qts chicken broth
- 1 lb escarole, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Make meat balls: Mix all ingredients together and form into very small meat balls- about the size of a prize shooting marble. Place on a sheet pan off to the side.
Make the soup: Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the meatballs and escarole and simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the escarole is tender - about 10 minutes.
To add the egg: Whisk the eggs to blend. Stir the soup in a circular motion. Slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the moving broth, stirring gently with a large fork to form thin stands of egg.
Ladle into bowls and add additional grated cheese and a drizzle of good-quality olive oil.
It made enough for dinner tonight and lunch, tomorrow.
La vita è bella!