String Beans for Breakfast!
Minestrone, of course. More truthfully, minestra. Which is
just a big soup of whatever you have on hand, sometimes it's string beans,
sometimes it's summer squash. This week it was zucchini and kale. I plop a
poached egg on top and voilà, breakfast is served.
It's more of a method than a recipe. And, to paraphrase the
venerable Julia, "If you have the method down, you can make a hundred dishes.
In this case the method is soup! String beans, squash, kale, minestrone, minestra ...
use what you will and call it what you like. These things are just the medium."
Now, let's begin.
1. Assemble whatever you want
to use or need to use up. Stay
basic with herbs and spices - you can screw it up. Trust me, I know.
2. Settle in with a big
heavy-bottomed pot, cutting board, knife and vegetable peeler.
3. CHOOSE YOUR FAT. Olive
oil, butter, pork fat like bacon or pancetta. (Check that freezer for
treasures.) Put a healthy few tablespoons in the pot on low heat.
4. ONIONS, CARROTS, CELERY.
I've been grating the carrots lately. I also used fennel this past
weekend. This is a classic mirepoix, which is what this phase of flavor building is called.
5. Add salt. You are wilting
the veggies not browning them for this soup.
While the onions and carrots are softening, stir now and
again but turn your attention to the pile of stuff on your cutting board and
admire it.
6. THEN GET TO IT. While everything in the pot is going soft and lovely it is time to dice and chop all your yummy vegetables. Not in the pot yet, wait for it!
7. GARLIC. Chop it, smash it and
press it through a press. Do whatever your inner soup voice whispers in
your ear. Cook the garlic for a minute or two before adding it to the pot.
You are now on autopilot. (Making soup is the closest I'll
ever get to T'ai Chi.)
Here's the rest of the dance:
8. WANT TO ADD SOME SPICES?
Smash them up. Mortar and pestle anyone? Throw them in and give them a
minute with the heat. (I'm into allspice right now.)
9. NEXT A LITTLE ACID. For
breakfast soup I aim for clear and bright flavors. I've have been going
with a few tomatoes halved across their equator, seeds squeezed out and
roughly chopped with skins on and into the pot.
10. Scrape up all the yummy bits that are stuck on the bottom of the pan. And give it all another
minute or two. You've just deglazed. You could use another acid like wine
or a stronger spirit like Pernod or cognac, maybe even a little vinegar.
Experiment, the kitchen is your oyster.
11. IN WITH THE WATER OR
STOCK. How much, you might ask? Cover the veggies with three inches or so.
12. Taste and salt.
13. If you chopped root vegetables you can throw them in now.
14. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer.
Now is the time for all the leafy lovelies and tender veggies
you are going to add. And don't for
heaven's sake add pasta or rice or any manner thereof to this sacred caldron! Cook that stuff in a pot of its own, rinse the starch when cooked and stash it
on the side with all the other last minute fillips that drive the crowd wild.
15. You know how we all stash
the rinds of spent Parmesan Regianno hunks in the freezer until we have
twenty of them crowding up the little shelf on the side door? Well, two or
three rinds go into the pot now.
Let's bring it home:
16. ADD THE LEAFY STUFF. After
the root veg has cooked about ten minutes. (Total cooking time so far has
been about thirty-five minutes.)
Continue the pot bubbling at a smile
until the leafy stuff is how you want it. I am looking at you string
beans or zucchini or summer squash.
17. TASTE. SALT. PEPPER.
18. OFF THE HEAT. COOL.
REFRIGERATE. Soup's better the next day.
19. REHEAT GENTLY JUST UNTIL
IT SIMMERS.
20. CHOP UP BUNCHES OF HERBS.
To Serve
1. Put some soft creamy
polenta in the bowl (or rice, pasta, fregula or nothing at all). If nothing
is your choice, then serve with a big hunk of bread and butter on the
side.
2. Ladle the soup around the
polenta and drizzle with your best olive oil. Grate some Parmesan Reggiano
on top and shave a few shards of the cheese with a vegetable peeler as
well. (Save the rinds in a plastic bag in the freezer for next time.)
3. Top with a poached egg (next
month secrets for fearless poaching) and another drizzle of olive oil. Then
toss a big scattering of those herbs you chopped, a dash of sea salt and some
fresh cracked pepper.
4. Throw a few
string beans on top for a victory lap.
It's what's for breakfast here at The Inn.
