Zuppa di Verdura

It’s getting cold here in Bologna, and it’s time to make more soup. In Emilia-Romagna, the most common, and sometimes only, soup we have seen on menus so far is tortellini in brodo (broth), which is more of a pasta dish than a soup. Sometimes there is vegetable soup (zuppa di verdura) available too, and if there is I usually order it, though it is hard to pay 6-8 euro for it when I can make a whole pot of it at home for that price. Now that the weather is changing, I am starting to see more containers of pre-cut vegetables for zuppa di verdura or minestrone available in the outdoor market stands. I wonder if more soups will start appearing in restaurants too.

Since these pre-cut containers usually contain celery, which Paul can’t stand, I haven’t wanted to buy them, but it is nice to see what the typical mix of vegetables would be. A few weeks ago I went to a stand near where we take Italian classes, explained that I wanted to make zuppa di verdura, and the owner, Pasquale, helped me pick everything I would need. Pasquale and his wife Mariella own the stand, called Ortofrutta Mariella, and both are very friendly and are happy to give recipe advice. Going through each ingredient with me one by one, Pasquale added the following to the bag and weighed it all together. (When I told Pasquale I wanted to post the recipe online, he reminded me emphatically to still list celery as an ingredient, because "ci vuole sedano," or it wants (calls for) celery.)

Ingredients:

-1 small onion

-2 carrots

-1 stalk celery

-2 small zucchini

-about 10 pods of fresh borlotti beans

-3 tomatoes

-1-2 large handfuls of green beans

-2 small potatoes

-1 wedge cabbage

-I small bunch swiss chard and/or black kale

-Salt to taste

-Generous pour of extra virgin olive oil

This bag cost 4.29 euro which to me seems like a great deal. Pasquale told me that if I let him know I want a mix with no celery, next time he will have it all cut up for me, but I would rather continue to chop everything myself.

I asked how he would suggest I make the soup and Pasquale said to just shell the beans and chop all of the vegetables into equal size pieces,

put everything in a pot, add water to cover the ingredients, and boil it until everything is tender and the soup starts to look integrated (about 1 hour).

Then at the end, add salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. You can also add pasta at the end to make it more of a minestrone.

This method is different than the one I usually use. Typically when I make vegetable soup I first make a vegetable broth. Then I start by sautéing onions and carrots in olive oil in a pot, and then I add the broth and the other vegetables in stages depending on how long I want them to cook. For example, I would add the cabbage at the very end. My usual method is a similar method to the one that I found in my friend and mentor's book, Around the Tuscan Table by Carole Counihan. I audited Carole's Food Anthropology class last spring at the University of Gastronomic Sciences. In her book, Carole notes that “there are as many minestrone recipes as there are women with kitchens." Although I do like my usual recipe, the way that Pasquale suggested seemed much easier, so I decided to try it. The result is a very light, clean tasting broth, which I like, especially since it takes me back to a memory of eating a soup that my best friend Emily Nackley made when we were in junior high. Not knowing how to cook at that age, I remember being so impressed that she actually made soup and it came out good. Plus, all of the zuppe di verdura I have eaten in restaurants here in Italy have had a clear broth like this one. I went back yesterday to tell Pasquale how much we liked the soup and to buy another custom bag of vegetables to make it again.