The Fumbling Foodie

Ribollita

This is my version of Ribollita, adapted from La Mia Ribollita Preferita (My Favorite Ribollita) found in Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italy.

Ribollita is Tuscany's most famous bread soup. Ribollita means re-boiled as this soup is typically prepared ahead and then returned to a boil just before serving. Jamie's recipe calls for cavolo nero cabbage. Of course, finding it here in Arizona is just not possible. Jamie recommends kale as a substitute, though Savoy cabbage is a more common substitute. I've been on a Swiss chard kick recently so I decided to use that instead. Similarly, Jamie recommends zolfini beans instead of the more commonly-used cannellini beans. It is hard enough to find cannellini beans around here. In addition, I added something that you don't normally find in ribollitta: three anchovy filets. They dissolve into the soup and add just a bit of flavor.

Being a bread soup, trying this recipe was a good way to use up the rest of the pullman loaf I made a few days ago.

To say this was seriously good was an understatement. I have almost had to resort to an armed guard in front of the refrigerator to prevent my lovely wife from devouring the leftovers in one sitting.

Rebollitta
1 14oz can of Cannellini beans
1 tomato
1 small potato
1 medium red onion
2 carrots
3 celery stalks
3 cloves garlic
1 pinch ground fennel seeds
1 tiny pinch red chili flakes
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
12-16 oz Swiss chard
2-3 fist-sized pieces of stale coarse bread, crust removed
extra virgin olive oil
3 anchovy filets, coarsly chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup chicken broth

Peel the potato. Quarter the tomato. Place a saucepan contaning 2 cups water over medium heat. Add the cannellini beans, bay leaf, potato, and tomato. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, potato, and tomato and discard them. Drain the beans, reserving about a half a cup of the cooking liquid.

Finely mince the garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Using a saucepan or other vessel large enough for the finished soup, add about 2 tablespoons olive oil and place it over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrots, celery, ground fennel seeds, and chili. Lower the heat to barely a simmer. Partially cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes until everything is tender but not browned. Add the can of diced tomatoes and the anchovies, and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the cooked cannellini beans along with the reserved cooking liquid. and bring to a boil. Stir in the Swiss chard and wait for it to wilt down. Tear the bread into small chunks and add it to the soup. Add chicken broth until the soup is thick but not dry.

Cook for up to an additional 30 minutes, adding additional chicken broth as necessary. Stir in 4-8 tablespoons of olive oil and serve.

Leek, Mushroom, and Swiss Chard Soup

This is the scond time I have made this soup and I made a few adjustments at my wife's request. It started out here but on the spur of the moment I omitted the cream and the thyme. I am surprised how serously good this soup is with so few ingredients.

Leek Mushroom, and Swiss Chard Soup
4-6 medium leeks
4 oz button mushrooms
1 large bunch Swiss chard
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups chicken stock

Trim off the root and green part of the leek. Cut each leek in half lengthwise, then cut it crosswise so you have half- to one inch-wide pieces. slice the mushrooms. Trim the Swiss Chard to remove the stem as well as the prt of the stem at the center of each leaf (You want the nice green leafy stuff only) then coarsly chop the leaves.

Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil into a large saucepan, stockpot, Dutch oven, or other container suitable for making soup and place it on the stove over medium high heat. Saute the leeks until soft and translucent. Add the remaining tablespoon olive oil. Add the mushrooms and saute about 5 minutes. Add the Swiss chard and saute until the leaves have wilted.

Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Sole Meuniere

My local supermarket had some fresh sole filets yesterday and that reminded me that I had not yet tried to make Sole Meuniere myself since the French cuisine cooking class. Now what to serve with it? It looked like they had just received a fresh shipment of apsparagus, so I grabbed that too.

Thumbing through the recipes I've collected off the 'net, I cam across Ruth at Once Upon a Feast's recipe for Leek, Mushroom, and Swiss Chard Soup. Ruth unfortunately left the mushrroms off the ingredient list, but as a 'shroom lover I figured half a pound would be enough. An interesting thing happened. As I got down to the final step where you are supposed to add the cup of cream, I first stated the soup. It had this wonderful earthy flavor that begged to be served as is. So the cream stayed in the fridge and we enjoyed a lower-calorie version.

One of the remarkable things about this meal is not that it was great-tasting and better than I've had in most restaurants, I spent all of about $27 serving this meal for four people.

Since I've hyperlinked to the recipes for the sole and soup, I'll put just the asparagus receipe here:

Roasted Asparagus

1 bunch thin asparagus
3-4 tablespoons dry white wine
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450F. Break the tough woody base end off each asparagus spear. Place the asparagus in a large bowl. Sprinkile with salt and pepper. Add the wine and oil and toss.

Put the asparagus in a baking dish and place on a middle rack in the oven. Roast about 5 inutes until crisp-tender. Sprinkle a little shaved parmesian on tap and serve.

Cream of Broccoli & Stilton Soup

This is probably the best cream of broccoli soup on the planet, or so says my son who is the soup connoisseur in the Fumbling Foodie household.

Three weeks after returning from US Army Basic Training, we are still in the mode of preparing his favorite foods. This recipe is adapted from the one found in Sonoita Seasons, one of my favorite cookbooks. The last time I checked, Heather at Plate It Up! still had a few copies.

Cream of Broccoli & Stilton Soup

4-5 ounces Stilton Cheese
4 Tablespoons butter
1 bunch broccoli, enough for 2 cups broccoli florets
1/3 cup celery, diced
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1/8 teaspooon white pepper
4 cups low salt chicken broth
1 1/4 tablespoon flour
1 cup heavy cream

Trim stilton of its outer yellow-brown crust. You should have about 3-4 ounces. Crumble and set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 4-quart pot over medium heat. Add broccoli, celery, onion, and pepper. Simmer, partially covered, until just tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, 30-35 minutes or until veggies are tender. Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is hazelnut brown, about 2 minutes. BE CAREFUL NOT TO SCORTCH FLOUR. Add slowly to pureed soup, whisking until blended. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, whisking occasionally for 15 minutes.

Combine stilton and heavy cream in a food processor. Prcoess until smooth. Whisk cheese mixture into soup until well-blended and just heated through; DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat and serve

Serves 4

Cream of Spinach Soup

This cream of spinach soup is adapted from Volume 2 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Saint Julia. I used my new food processor to slice the onions and I probably will never slice onions by hand again! I make a lot of cream soups and this one was very tasty and definitely a keeper:

Cream of Spinach Soup

10oz pkg Frozen Spinach
1/2 cup sliced onions
2 tablespoons butter
4 cups low salt chicken broth
1/3 cup raw white rice
1 pinch nutmeg
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 egg yolks

Thaw the spinach. Saute the onions in the butter In a saucepan until tender but not browned. Add the spinach and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, and add the rice and nutmeg. Partially cover and simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the cream and egg yolks. Slowly add 1-2 cups of the hot soup to the cream/egg mixture while stirring briskly. Then pour the mixture back into the soup.

If necessary, let the soup come to a simmer again before removing from the heat and serving.

Serves 4

The First Product from My New Food Processor

Gazpacho, straight out of the Cuisinart recipe book.

I will say that to finely chop or mince small quantities (like a single garlic clove) my Cuisinart Min-Prep does a better job.

Cream of Zucchini Soup

My immersion blender got another workout tonight. This is an adaptation of a recipe from the Sonoita Seasons cookbook. Essentally, I omitted the milk and cream from the original recipe to try to provide something as flavorful but lower in calories and fat. Even without the dairy products I was able to get a very nice creamy texture using the hand blender:

Cream of Zucchini Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion chopped
6 medium-sized zucchini, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
4 cups chicken broth

In a stockpot over medium heat, add the olive oil and saute the garlic until golden. Add the onions and saute until limp. Add the zucchini and saute for about 5 minutes. Add thyme and rosemary, toss for one minute. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and simmer until the zucchini are very soft and fall apart easily (about 90 minutes).

Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree.

Tags: Zucchini,Soup