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Cook Up a Pot of Goodness
August 20, 2008
LOCAL PICKS
Cook Up a Pot of Goodness: Turn farmers' market bounty into a simple yet delicious soup
By Denise Miller
For the Journal
My immediate intention was not to make soup. However, once I saw the leeks coyly sitting on a market table, I suppose it was only a matter of time.
What I didn't know as I shopped at the South Valley Farmers' Market and the Downtown Albuquerque Growers' Market one recent sunny Saturday morning was that the next day would be cool and rainy, perfect for assembling a light soup.
Looking over my produce purchases and thumbing through one of my favorite soup cookbooks, which happens to be from a New Mexican author, "Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen," I tried to find a good fit for the day.
Of course, the first thing you notice when you try to squeeze a recipe around ingredients you already have is what you are missing. Why didn't I buy carrots or more onions? Where is that other squash I thought I had?
Fortunately, soups are quite forgiving, and as long as you have a few basics -- water, something in the onion family and a few spices -- you can usually pull off small miracles. I even found I could manage vegetable stock without the staple of celery.
I have to admit I don't always make stock or have some on hand in the freezer. True, these soups are probably not as good as they would be with homemade stock, but life gets busy and, the truth is, they still taste pretty good.
But as I read over Madison's recipe for A Farmers' Market Soup With Pasta and Pesto, it hardly seemed right to create this garden fresh soup and not use a freshly made stock.
As I gathered everything I had available for the soup and those things I had left over for the stock, the two tasks paralleled each other perfectly. It really didn't take much additional time or effort to get the stock going, and by the time I prepped the main ingredients (about 30 minutes), the stock was ready.
If you don't have a favorite method for creating your own vegetable stock or a recipe resource handy, the main thing to remember is to chop your vegetables roughly so you can extract them after their flavor seeps into the water. For extra flavor, it's also a good idea to braise the first few veggies that you throw in the pot (i.e, an onion, carrots, celery) in a bit of oil before adding a couple quarts of water and any other vegetable trimmings you have.
I improvised quite a bit on the stock and soup based on what I had in the kitchen. The stock didn't mind absorbing my slightly old produce from the refrigerator drawer, and the soup approved of substitutions like a variation of potato and kohlrabi instead of green beans.
Luckily, I still had some of last season's pesto in the freezer so I was able to skip that step of the recipe. And, while the soup that night tasted great with the pesto, leftovers tasted just as good without.
Personally, the only change I might make in the future is to cut down on the potato when adding the full cup of pasta.
This is a great soup for highlighting just how much flavor comes from the garden mid-summer, and as my experience proves, just how marvelously flexible soups can be.
FARMERS' MARKET SOUP WITH PASTA AND PESTO
Makes about 10 cups
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 leeks, white parts plus an inch of green, chopped and rinsed
Pinch of saffron threads
3 medium to large carrots, diced
3 yellow waxy boiling potatoes, chopped
3 medium turnips, peeled and diced
3 zucchini or other summer squash, sliced into ½-inch rounds or chunks
¾ pound green beans, tipped, tailed and cut into 1-inch lengths
2 large ripe tomatoes, any color, peeled, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 cup pasta: pastini, orzo, broken spaghetti or other small shapes
The Pesto
3 cups loosely packed basil leaves, stems removed
1 plump garlic clove, peeled
3 tablespoons pine nuts
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Warm oil in a wide soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and saffron and cook gently until the leeks look glossy and translucent and the saffron begins to release its aroma, about 10 minutes. Add the vegetables, including the juice from the tomatoes, the garlic, and 1½ teaspoons salt. Cook for 5 minutes more, then add the stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted boiling water, then drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
Make the pesto. Drop the basil into boiling water for a second or two, then drain, rinse and pat dry. Mash the garlic in a mortar with ¼ teaspoon salt and the pine nuts, then add the basil leaves a handful at a time. Grind them, using a circular motion, until you have a fairly fine paste with very small flecks of leaves. Briefly work in the cheeses, then stir in the olive oil. Taste for salt. Or, to use a food processor, process the garlic, salt and pine nuts until finely chopped, then add the basil and olive oil and puree until smooth. Add the cheeses and process just to combine.
Add the pasta to the hot soup, then ladle the soup into bowls and stir a spoonful of pesto into each serving. Season with pepper. The soup need not be piping hot. In fact, it's better served a little more on the tepid side.
-- Adapted from "Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen," 2006
