An Exaltation of Soups (23 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
GYPT
FAVA BEAN SOUP
FUL NABED
A
NCIENT
F
AVA
B
EANS
Favas originated in ancient Egypt but early spread throughout the Mediterranean and into China. In fact, it was that ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras who forbade his followers to eat them because, according to legend, they were said to contain the souls of the dead. More likely, Pythagoras discerned the connection between eating undercooked fava beans and the anemic blood disorder now called favism. Traces of the fava’s cultivation have been found in Bronze Age sites in Switzerland and in Iron Age sites in England. Epigrammatist Martial opined about them, “If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.”
Serves 2 to 3
P
LAIN AND DELICATE
in flavor, this simple and nutritious version of the classic Egyptian soup is routinely prescribed for the sick. The familiar garnish of lemon and parsley used here seems to invite the patient to step back into a normal diet. Fava (or broad) beans take a long time to soak, meaning you’ve got to plan for when your sickie is ready to be crammed full of protein, but long soaking results in a blandly comforting soup that’s made pretty quickly in the end. If you can’t find the dried white skinless fava beans, look for canned whole ones, which are relatively easy to skin, or substitute chickpeas.
1 cup dried white skinless fava beans
1 garlic clove
3 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of ground cumin
Salt and white pepper to taste
G
ARNISH
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
Lemon juice
O
P
REPARE
1. Two days ahead, place the beans in a bowl with plenty of water to cover to soak. You may change the water throughout the soaking period to discharge those indigestible complex sugars that have such an impact on human digestive systems.
2. Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
1. Drain the soaked beans and put them in a large saucepan with the garlic and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for at least 1 hour, until the beans are very very tender and literally disintegrating to form a soup. (Depending on the beans, you might need to cook the beans another full hour, adding additional water—don’t worry, you can’t overcook them.) Mash with a fork to get a nice soupy consistency, adding water as necessary to thin the soup to your liking.
2. Whisk in the olive oil and cumin, then season with salt and pepper. Let simmer a few more minutes to blend the flavors.
O
S
ERVE
Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the minced parsley and squeezings of lemon juice. Depending on the taste and health of your sick one, you can serve the soup with more lemon slices on the side and toasted pita bread.
S
ILENCE OF THE
F
AVAS
It was Hannibal Lecter in the film
The Silence of the Lambs
, of course, who claimed to have eaten the liver of a census taker “with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
RANCE
CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
SAVOYARDE SOUPE DE FIDES
Serves 2
T
HIS SOUP SPECIALLY
marked by farm people for the sick in the snowy Alps of France is a real beauty. It’s delicate, aromatic, digestible, and filled with goodness—just the thing to pique a lagging appetite.
M
UST
B
E
S
OMETHING ABOUT
O
PERA
Opera composer Gioacchino Antonio Rossini doted on the Italian version of this soup,
cappelleti in brodo
, which he was said to gulp down at a tremendous rate, as if he feared someone might steal it from him—while Guiseppe Verdi made a variation he called
la squisita minestra
(“delicious soup”) that he liked to serve to guests, a chicken broth with fried potato dumplings.
3 cups rich Chicken Stock
1 garlic clove, pressed
½ cup broken-up fine soup noodles
¼ cup finely chopped fresh greens or herbs or, even better, peeled fresh asparagus, cut thinly on the diagonal and with tips whole
Salt and white pepper to taste
Pinch of minced fresh parsley, for garnish
O
P
REPARE
Prep the ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat with the pressed garlic and cook for a minute. Toss in the noodles and cook, uncovered, until they are al dente. Add the asparagus, if using; partially cover and cook for a minute or two. If you are using herbs or greens, add them just as the noodles are done and remove from the heat.
O
S
ERVE
Season with the salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and top each portion with a pinch of parsley.
S
OUP ON A
F
RENCH
F
ARM
Colette’s career began with soup. Many things do, in France—the two chief meals of every day, for instance, in every family; and some things end with it also, as, in many working-class homes, there is nothing else for dinner and supper except just the soup, and a big hunk of bread to dip in it. And, on that, the boys and girls manage to grow up as strong and active and wiry as you please. For there is no more valuable article of food than well-made soup.
Mind, it must be well made. A soup square, melted down in a little hot water or a highly seasoned mess out of a tin have no food value at all, or next to none. Besides, they are very costly, and quite needlessly so: real, homemade soup should cost next to nothing, as all the odds and ends in the house can be used up for it.
—M
ARIE
J
ACQUES
,
C
OLETTE’S
B
EST
R
ECIPES:
A B
OOK OF
F
RENCH
C
OOKERY
,
1923
TALY
“LITTLE RAGS” EGG DROP SOUP
STRACCIATELLA
