Italian Kitchen Secrets: soup

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10/05/2009

Onion soup ( Zuppa di cipolle)

Maybe it's because the cold is slowly coming, maybe it's because I feel in need of comfort food but I'm here with a soup recipe again. :D

It' warm, creamy, tasty, cheap: anything better?

Don't worry about your breath, cooked onions don't make it smell!

For 4 serves you need:

2 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

15 small blonde onions

salt and pepper

4-5 cups meat (better) or canned broth

1 cup fontina cheese chopped in dices

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan

8 big slices of rustic Italian bread, thick and stale

Heat in a big pan oil and butter, add finely sliced onions and let them stirfry mixing often.

Keep them on fire untill they're soft and golden.

Add salt and pepper.

In individual soup bowls put a dipper of meath broth, then a piece of stale bread, then cover with onions and add some fontina cubes.

Cover with another layer of bread and onions, add another little dipper of broth, spread a generous part of grated cheese.

Cover with an allumionion foil and put in preheated oven (around 375F°) and cook for about half an hour.

Check if the soup needs a little more broth, keep off the alluminium foil and cook 10 minutes more untill the grated cheese is brown, remove from the oven, let it rest for few minutes and serve hot or at least warm.

P.S.: You can use Pecorino cheese instead of Parmesan and another stringy cheese instead of Fontina if you can't find it.

9/28/2009

Porcini mushrooms soup ( Zuppa di funghi porcini)

Nice recipe to use one of the most delightful gift that come with the fall season.

I love mushrooms, any kind of mushrooms, porcini of course are favourite but not the only ones.

For 4 serves you need:

1 blonde onion

1 lb. cleaned porcini mushrooms

1 garlic clove

2 1/2 cups meat broth or canned broth

1 cup fresh milk cream

2 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper

fresh chopped parsley

rustic Italian style bread in slices

Mince onion and garlic, put them in a pan with butter and fry lightly.

Add porcini sliced in tiny slices, add them in the pan, let stew for a while.

Add broth and let it cook for about 10 minutes, add salt and pepper and parsley.

Remove 3 spoons of mushrooms from the pan, put what left in a mixer, add cream and mix.

Heat the soup you've obtained, puor in dishes, add the mushrooms you previously removed and serve with toasted bread slices seasoned with a little garlic and extravirgin olive oil.

2/27/2008

Borlotti soup with pasta (Pasta e fagioli)

It's a winter soup, it's eaten especially in North of Italy (Veneto, Lombardia, Emilia Romagna and in Tuscany too).

For 4 persons you can use 200gr. of dried borlotti or a can of boiled beans with its water /person (and trust me, the soup with them is pheraps even tastier!).

With dried beans you have to put them in water for 12 hours, then boil them in new salty water for 1 hour and half (about) with canned one you just have to open the tin:D.
Some uses bacon in the base , I prefer ham (just a thin slice crushed tiny).

Put the ham in the pot, add 3 spoons of extra virgin olive oil a clove of garlic crushed gently with the large part of a knife and a little rosmary (on your preference).

Let it fry for a couple of minutes then add all the borlotti except an abundant fistful.

Using the immersion mixer (don't know if it's have a particular name in english, it's the mixer you can immerse in liquids hot or cold directly in the pot or in a bowl or in a tall glass) make a cream blending all the beans then add the rest of borlotti.

Cook on low fire for around 20 minutes, if you want you can add 100 gr. of short pasta (100 gr. for 4 persons, it's seems not so much but the soup is creamy and pasta tend to absorb liquids, if you add more at the end you'll have a concrete block ^^)

If soup results too solid add a glass of water.

Remember to remove the garlic clove:P

Serve hot with grated parmesan and a little olive oil, if you don't add pasta you can toast a slice of bread, pass over it fresh garlic (just a caress^^) and olive oil and serve this plain bruschetta with the soup.

Italian Kitchen Secrets