Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Is it a pasta dish or a soup?

I think it is a little of column A and a little of column B as they say. I really love Italian bean soups like minestrone, pasta e fagioli, Tuscan white bean soup, etc...
But unfortunately my significant other is allergic to most white beans. Thankfully, he is not allergic to garbanzo beans/chickpeas. I pulled out a recipe from the Jamie's Italy book, first time using this book but it is very nice to look at. I sometimes like Jamie Oliver, but his show is really like trying to watch MTV with the jumpy editing. Anyhow, I decided to try pasta e ceci from said book.
Along with a fresh loaf of bread that I forgot to slash the top of prior to baking - a very crispy crust and fairly custardy crumb, so not a total disaster.
This was a pretty easy soup to make, especially since canned beans were allowed here. Just a bit of onion, garlic, celery, olive oil, and rosemary from the garden get sweated for a while on low heat. Then the beans are covered with some chicken/turkey stock and cooked a bit. I removed about half of the beans from the pot before blending with my stick blender, then re-added the beans and some salad macaroni (ditalini if you want to be fancy schmancy) & simmered until the pasta was done. This soup needs lots of seasoning, beans love salt. A little drizzle of oil over the top to finish, it was really nice. I think I will be revisiting this one before the "winter" is over.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe your significant other would like the Spicy Couscous and Chickpea Salad in the Meatless Monday recipe archive under lunch. You both might like all the vegetarian chili's too, if you like hearty soups with beans, but you have to rule out white beans.

Meatless Monday is a public health initiative, I just started working for, which encourages Americans to cut meat from their diets once a week (we suggest Mondays, hence the name...) The Meatless Monday mission is to help prevent rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer- the four leading causes of death in the US; all preventable. The website can be a great place to find all kinds of healthy meatless recipes. They even have a special Quick Sautes and an On the Go sections on their recipe archives, perfect for busy families. Meatless Monday is affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, so it can also be an excellent resource for health and wellness articles and tips.

Anonymous said...

It would also probably be good with a pork stock. 22+ pounds of sausage give one far to much pork scrap, skin and bones, to throw away. So pork stock it is.