Italian Garbage Soup

We were hunting around for something new to make and had some odds and ends. I'm not a big fan of Olive Garden but their Tosca Zuppa is pretty good (and would be better with less salt). I decided to look around online for a recipe and it quickly became obvious that this was the Italian version of "Garbage Soup." Every culture has one and they are clearly the invention of over-worked housewives who need to get something on the table. Not surprisingly, they are also some of the tastiest soups around. The potatoes, green beans, thyme, and kale came from Dewdrop Farms in Springboro.

Preparation Notes
This recipe begs to be improvised.  That doesn't mean using substandard ingredients, however. Avoid canned vegetables and bullion cubes if you can. Do not underestimate the importance of deglazing. Getting all the goopy crud off the bottom of the pan will really add depth to your dishes.

Tosca Zuppa
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/2# sage sausage
white wine, for deglazing
6 cups chicken stock
1# red bliss potatoes, quartered
2 bay leaves
1# fresh green beans
4 sprigs of lemon thyme
few leaves of kale

Saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic ans saute a few minutes more. Add the sausage and brown until cooked. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and add the rest of the ingredients except the kale. Cook until the potatoes are to your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in the kale.

Soup Glorious Soup

It's not often I expect much out of the recipes in the Kroger coupon mailer but this one sounded like it was worth a try. I was not disappointed. The onion, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, parsley, rosemary, and thyme all came from Dewdrop Farms in Springboro, Ohio.

Basic Preparation

Although it might seems expensive, I highly recommend getting a good food processor for blending soups and chopping vegetables. It really does simplify the prep work and reduced the chance of injury, either from slicing your fingers or burning your skin. Whenever recipes call for varying amounts of herb, I always go with the upper number; for salt, I err in the other direction. I also always use reduced sodium stocks if I don't have fresh on hand. Salt is good for enhancing flavor but it shouldn't be a crutch to cover up poor flavor. When you get use to using less, you'll be surprised at how salty typical over-salted fare starts to taste.

White Bean Soup With Vegetables
4 servings

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, minced
2 medium carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium Yukon Gold potato, chopped
1 medium zucchini, diced
4 sprigs Italian flat-leaf parsley, minced
1/4 tsp each fresh rosemary and thyme
6 cups warm chicken stock
2 1/2 cups white beans soaked and cooked
1 tbs unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and saute the onion, carrot, celery, and potato until they sweat.

Stir in the parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Add the zucchini, stock, and beans. Cook 25-30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Puree to a uniform consistency. Stir in butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook and additional 3-5 minutes.

Not Just For The Soul

I guarantee if you make this chicken soup recipe, you will never open another can or packet again. It is adapted from a recipe by Emeril Lagasse. The onion, thyme, and parsley were provided by Dewdrop Farms in Springboro, Ohio.

Basic Preparation

I cannot stress enough the importance of using freshly ground pepper. Find a good grinder and never buy pre-ground...ever! I also suggest never using salted butter when cooking. You can always adjust the salt at the end. If you don't have real chicken stock or canned I would advise against using bouillon. Why go to all the bother of making fresh chicken soup if you just plan to ruin it with those little cubes. Open up a can of soup and wait until you can buy some. The only substitute for regular bouillon is Better Than Bouillon. If you are using a small noodle like alphabet or stars be sure not too much or they will swell and you'll end up noodle cake.

Simple Chicken Noodle Soup
4 hearty servings

1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs)
1 quart chicken stock
2 quarts water
2 medium onions, quartered
2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery stalks, roughly chopped

2 sprigs fresh thyme

5-6 parsley stems

2 bay leaves

2 tbs unsalted butter

1/2 cup diced onions

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/2 cup diced celery

2 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 lb noodles

2 tbs fresh parsley

Place the chicken in a large soup pot and cover with chicken broth and water. Add the onion quarters, roughly chopped carrots and celery, thyme, parsley stems, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, partially cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove the chicken and, when cool enough to handle, shred the meat. Strain the liquid through cheese cloth and discard the vegetables reserving the liquid.

Melt the butter in the pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced carrots, onions, and celery and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the reserved broth and meat and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and simmer until cooked, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Looking Forward to the Cold

With winter on the (distant) horizon, we decided to work on our split pea soup recipe. Past attempts were tasty but the peas never seemed to fully cook. So for this attempt, we decided to use a slow cooker. The result was a good consistency but was more bland than we would have preferred. This can probably be corrected by adding another Cajun belle pepper, and substituting a ham and ham bone for pork shoulder. It also might help to replace the water with a vegetable stock.

The onions, Cajun belle pepper, and lemon thyme were provided by Dewdrop Farms in Springboro, Ohio.

Basic Preparation

It is important to remember that very little liquid will evaporate from the slow cooker so you should use less water than called for. With soups, this means putting all the ingredients in the pot and then just covering with water. This recipe was adapted from Emeril Lagasse's "Ham and Split Pea Soup."

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup
6 servings

1 pound dried split peas
I pork shoulder
3 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped
1 tbs garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 Cajun belle pepper, minced (with seeds)
2 bay leaves
small handful of fresh lemon thyme sprigs

Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker and cover with water. Cook on high for at least 4 hours or low for 6.

A Few of My Favorite Things

When a friend admitted that she doesn't cook and hadn't had a home cooked meal since Thanksgiving, I knew that I had to remedy the situation ASAP. Of course, I realized that this was not the time to experiment so I searched my memory for things that I had cooked in the past that were sure to satisfy. The soup and desert courses were easy and they are two of my all-time favorite dishes. The main course took a little longer but once I remembered then, I was sure I had the right menu.

I intended to serve the meal with cranberry wine but it wasn't until we went to open the bottle that I realized that I didn't have a corkscrew. I did not forget pictures this time although I had no batteries for the camera and had to use the camera phone resulting in them being somewhat blurry. You might also note that presentation is still something on which I need to improve.

All of the recipes except for the soup are from ``The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors'' by Jeff Smith, first edition, 1992 by Avon Books (ISBN 0-380-71708-5). The soup came from that old staple that every cook, home or otherwise, should own, The Joy of Cooking.

The menu

• vichyssoise
• Cuban ropa vieja over Hungarian dumplings
• cheesecake, New York style

Basic Preparation

A word about working with garlic. The ropa vieja required two cloves of crushed garlic. This is not a time to simplify and use powdered or dried...get a press and crush it yourself. But, a word to the wise, unless you want your hands to smell of garlic for a couple of days, use gloves. I personally don't mind the smell and will sniff my fingers periodically as a way to remind myself of the fun of cooking and eating the meal.

Vichyssoise



This is a perfect example of how an amazing dish can be created quite easily and with very little work. I prefer the first version in The Joy of Cooking to the second. The recipe says 1-2 cups of cream and I like it best with the minimum since more covers the potato flavor. Since all you have done is to puree potatoes, leeks, and onions boiled in chicken broth, it is one of those things you can cook frequently while making changes to see how it changes your appreciation for the dish (i.e. try it with beef broth or add shallots). Finally, although usually served cold, I prefer it hot like all soups.


Cuban Ropa Vieja



This was one of my first lessons on why it is important to read a recipe fully before starting: the meat must be simmered for two hours and then allowed to cool so that it can be deboned and shredded which can take another hour. If you didn't realize this, you might be rather inconvenienced when you found that you main course had no hope of being finished on time. When I first made this stew, I accidentally doubled the tomato sauce. I corrected my mistake the second time around only to find that I liked it better with the extra and that is how I always make it now.


Hungarian Dumplings

These are similar to German spaetzle and quite easy to prepare. You will need a spaetzle press but almost any gook cooking shop should have an inexpensive one and they are easy to use. When I first made these, I learned another lesson on why you read the entire recipe making sure that it makes sense with the ingredient list given. After reading the ingredient list, I spent quite a while trying to figure out what ``mil'' was. Had I read the preparation section, I would have realized that there was a typo in the ingredient list and that all I needed to locate was ``milk'' which is readily available at most grocery stores.


Cheesecake, New York Style



I have never tasted a cheesecake as good as this recipe. In fact, this version is what made me a cheesecake purist. After eating it for the first time, I came to realize that you only put other things in them or drizzle sauces over them to cover up inferiority. The hardest part is making the graham cracker crust which seems to be intended to be spread very, very thin. I doubled it this time but it made too much and it became a little hard after baking. This is one of those items where simply following the time and temperature in the recipe is important since there is no way to tell when the cheesecake is done as it will continue to cook after being removed from the oven. If you use the knife or toothpick insertion test you will surely overcook it and although it will taste fine, it will have the texture of cottage cheese. For best results, you should purchase a good oven thermometer.