It's hard for me to admit, but there are certain things I can't do in the kitchen (sorry to let you down loyal Scordo.com readers, but it's true). I count making soup and baking as two kitchen tricks I just can't pull off. Baking is an exact science with little room for ad-libbing and it just doesn't fit with my cooking style and on the soup side of things I live with a soup master (viz., my wife).
If I attempt to make soup in my house it's the equivalent of going out to play a set with Roger Federer; that is to say, most tennis players can move, hit a forehand, and get through a few sets, but at the end of the day most tennis players will lose to Federer. And this is essentially how I feel about attempting to make soup in the Scordo household - I'm just going to lose or make an inferior soup if my wife is present. So, in honor of your's truly admitting he is not perfect when it comes to all kitchen duties, I give you my wife's pea soup recipe:
- 1 cup of dry peas (organic dry peas have better flavor and will improve your soup greatly)
- 2 carrots chopped
- 2 stalks of celery diced
- 1 small onion diced
- 1/2 large potato or 1 small potato chopped
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 4 cups of purified water
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (one note here, please use kosher salt when it comes to cooking, the Iodized stuff is only good for salting pasta water. And on the pepper front, freshly ground is best)
Sautee your veggies in the olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper (until soft) and thereafter add peas, water, and a bit more salt and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for an hour. That's it, you're done.
I like freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and some extra, freshly ground, black pepper in my pea soup. We added a dish of rip cantaloupe and thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma to our meal, along with a few glasses of crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region in New Zealand (Still a bargain wine but getting more and more expensive).
I like freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and some extra, freshly ground, black pepper in my pea soup. We added a dish of rip cantaloupe and thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma to our meal, along with a few glasses of crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region in New Zealand (Still a bargain wine but getting more and more expensive).
Italian
