Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [44]
Summer Vegetable Soup with Rice and Basil, Milan Style
DURING Milan’s hot summers, the trattorie make this minestrone first thing in the morning, pour it into individual soup plates, and display it on a table by the entrance alongside such other likely specialties of the day as an assortment of crisp vegetables for a pinzimonio, a cold poached bass, a Parma ham with sweet cantaloupes or, in late summer, with ripe, honey-oozing figs. By twelve-thirty or one o’clock, when the first lunch patrons are seated, the minestrone will have reached precisely the right temperature and consistency.
Because the flavor of vegetable soup improves upon reheating, you needn’t make this minestrone entirely from scratch the same day you are going to serve it. You can cook the soup that constitutes its base a day or two earlier and take it out of the refrigerator when you are ready to begin. Bear in mind that once completed, cold minestrone needs at least one hour’s settling time to cool down to the most desirable serving temperature.
For 4 servings
2 cups Vegetable Soup, Romagna Style
½ cup rice, preferably Italian Arborio rice
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
¼ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
8 to 10 fresh basil leaves, torn into several small strips
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1. Put the vegetable soup and 2 cups water in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the rice, stirring it well with a wooden spoon.
2. When the soup returns to a boil, add salt and a few grindings of pepper. Stir, cover the pot, and turn the heat down to medium low. Stir from time to time. Begin to taste the rice for doneness after 12 minutes. Do not overcook it, because it will continue to soften later while the soup cools in the plate. When done, before turning off the heat, swirl in the grated cheese, then taste and correct for salt.
3. Ladle the soup into individual plates or bowls, add the torn up basil leaves, mix well, and set aside to rest. Serve at room temperature, drizzling each plate with a little bit of olive oil.
Note Do not serve the soup any later than the day it is made, and do not refrigerate it before serving.
Variation with Pesto
At the end of Step 2 in the preceding recipe, when the rice is done, swirl in 2 tablespoons of pesto. After ladling into the soup plates or individual bowls, omit the fresh basil leaves.
Spring Vegetable Soup
THIS IS lighter and fresher tasting than the more familiar versions of vegetable soup. It doesn’t have, nor does it seek, the complex resonance of flavors that a minestrone achieves through lengthy cooking of an extensive assortment of vegetables. It is simply a sweet-tasting mix of artichokes and peas, supported by a base of potatoes, cooked with olive oil and garlic.
For 4 to 6 servings
3 medium artichokes
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 pound fresh peas, weighed unshelled, OR ½ of a 10-ounce package frozen peas, thawed
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic chopped fine
1 pound boiling potatoes, peeled, washed, and cut into ¼-inch slices
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
3 tablespoons parsley chopped very fine
OPTIONAL: 1 slice per serving of toasted crusty bread lightly rubbed with garlic
1. Trim the artichokes of their tough leaves and tops. Cut them lengthwise in half, and remove the chokes and prickly inner leaves.
2. Cut the artichoke halves lengthwise into the thinnest possible slices, and put them in a bowl with enough water to cover, adding the lemon juice to the water.
3. If using fresh peas, shell them, and prepare some of the pods for cooking by stripping away their inner membranes. It’s not necessary to use all or even most of the pods, but do as many as you have patience for. The more of them that go into the pot, the sweeter the soup will taste.
4. Put the olive oil and garlic into a soup pot, turn on the heat to medium high, and sauté the garlic