From The
Vegeterranean: Italian Vegetarian Cooking, Malu Simõs & Alberto
Musacchio, Simon & Schuster, 2008.
I have a fondness for soups (as is probably obvious). This
royal soup looked very interesting and while it had several elements to it, I
thought it was worthwhile having a go at it.
The first step was to make the stock. Tomatoes, an onion,
zucchinis, carrots, potatoes and celery were cut into reasonably sized pieces
and placed into a pan of water and simmered for at least an hour. The mixture
was then strained to obtain the stock.
The interesting content for the soup was made while the
stock was simmering away. Some egg was beaten with a little semolina, some
grated parmesan, and pepper and salt. This was fried in small portions in a pan
so that it was able to spread to make a thin little fritter. When the fritters
were all done they were cut up into 5 mm squares.
The greens for the soup were escarole but as I had some
English spinach on hand I decided to use that. This was blanched in hot water,
then drained and roughly chopped. Some olive oil was heated in a pan with
garlic added and cooked until it was golden. At this stage the spinach was
added and cooked a little longer.
The stock was reheated and the spinach and
little fritters were added and simmered for a few minutes. Some cubed soft
cheese was placed at the bottom of the serving bowls and the soup placed over
it.
This was a different soup that was quite enjoyable. The
fritter pieces were tasty savoury bites. The cheese melted into the clear,
gently flavoured stock and aided its texture. The spinach added a bitter tang.
All in all a pleasing mixture of textures and flavours.
Taste: ✔✔✔✔
Ease of
cooking: ✔✔
No comments:
Post a Comment