Soup Question

[larry_stewart]

I was talking with an older Italian acquaintance , with a heavy, almost non-understandable accent. Our common interest is gardening so we were talking mostly about that until he brought up a vegetable soup that he makes. Apparently his daughter makes the same soup , but the grandkids like his better because in addition to what his daughter does, he roasts fennel, makes a puree of the roasted fennel and peas then adds that to the soup.

Unfortunately, the conversation ended, and I wasn't able to get a recipe or even just a basic rundown of the actual soup itself. He is a random acquaintance , so no way of I can contact him until our next random encounter.

So, my question is, knowing that he is an older Italian, heavy accent ( so probably something he did back in the day when he was in Italy), vegetable soup, roasted fennel/ pea puree added at the end, the same soup that his daughter makes that can apparently stand alone by itself without the puree, what kind of soup base do you think it is ( tomato, chicken stock, vegetable stock, another kind of stock ...) ?

Ive never really added Fennel (or roasted fennel/ pea puree) to a soup before, so I need some direction.

If anyone has a soup that they do this with, Id be curious to see the recipe .

thanks,

Larry

 

[Aunt Bea]

I'm thinking it is similar to this recipe from Ina Garten.

Pea & Fennel Soup Recipe | Ina Garten | Food Network

 

[caseydog]

I'm thinking it is similar to this recipe from Ina Garten.

Pea & Fennel Soup Recipe | Ina Garten | Food Network

That soup wouldn't work without the peas and fennel, and the whole soup is blended. It sounds good, but doesn't sound like the description in the OP.

CD

 

[Sagittarius]

This sounds like a traditional Italian classic soup.

I prepare a Minestrone which has roasted fennel in it and the stock is vegetables.

I use fennel, zucchine or courgette, day old rustic country bread, parsley, tomato de-seeded and peeled, minced carrot, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, garlic, salt, black pepper freshly ground, Reggiano Parmesan, shallot or onion, leek diced finely and place 1 sunnyside egg on top ..

There are as many versions of this soup as there are Italians in Italy !

Another verison is the Riscoperta, which is prepared with a Calabrian dried red horn crumbly chili pepper .. Classically, roasted fennel and broccoli have been used ..

However, there is a lady from Northern Italy, who could probably assist you more ..
( Di Reston - Diana ) .. Perhaps, you should write her ..

 

[GotGarlic]

This sounds like a traditional Italian classic soup.

I prepare a Minestrone which has roasted fennel in it and the stock is vegetables.

I use fennel, zucchine or courgette, day old rustic country bread, parsley, tomato de-seeded and peeled, minced carrot, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, garlic, salt, black pepper freshly ground, Reggiano Parmesan, shallot or onion, leek diced finely and place 1 sunnyside egg on top ..

There are as many versions of this soup as there are Italians in Italy !

Another verison is the Riscoperta, which is prepared with a Calabrian dried red horn crumbly chili pepper .. Classically, roasted fennel and broccoli have been used ..

However, there is a lady from Northern Italy, who could probably assist you more ..
( Di Reston - Diana ) .. Perhaps, you should write her ..

I've never heard of a minestrone soup with a fennel-pea purée added to it and it usually contains beans and some type of small pasta. .

 

[caseydog]

I've never heard of a minestrone soup with a fennel-pea purée added to it and it usually contains beans and some type of small pasta. .

Like a lot of Italian cooking, there is no one recipe for minestrone. It is simply a vegetable soup made with the vegetables available in a given season, or location. It often has rice or pasta, but doesn't have to. The base is usually a bean broth.

My first thought was that the soup Larry is looking for may be a very local, or even family variation of a minestrone. That is just a guess, but it is as good as any other guess.

CD

 

[larry_stewart]

Like a lot of Italian cooking, there is no one recipe for minestrone. It is simply a vegetable soup made with the vegetables available in a given season, or location. It often has rice or pasta, but doesn't have to. The base is usually a bean broth.

My first thought was that the soup Larry is looking for may be a very local, or even family variation of a minestrone. That is just a guess, but it is as good as any other guess.

CD

Im probably going with this.
He referred to it as 'vegetable soup' through his very thick Italian accent.
What I got is that the original recipe ( that his daughter made) was jus that.

His roasted fennel/ pea puree was that little added extra that apparently makes the soup more enjoyable to the grandkids ( or they're just being good grandkids telling him that they like it better . I know I was guilty of that back in the day. My grandmother bought me amaretto cookies ( which I hated, but how can you tell grandma that). From that day on, every time i visited she bought them for me and I had to pretend I liked them. And for my brother, she bought him those tubular wafer like chocolate dipped cookies ( which i love)).

That being said, the Fennel/ pea addition actually sounds pretty good to me. I got some fennel and peas few days a go, and Im going to give it a try. Ill probably make a minestrone type soup. Should come out good. But Ill be sure to keep my eyes out for my friend , next time we cross paths , and ask him.

I have another older Italian acquaintance who gave me some tips on how he cures green olives, and what he does with green tomatoes as well. He also explained how he wraps up his fig tree ( I think Im the only one in the world who does it poorly ).

I think the general lesson of all this ,is to listen and learn from this older generation. Learn from their experiences from a different time, different culture, background , ethnicity... In a world today, where you can get and learn just about any info from the internet, it doesn't hurt to have a one on one with someone who actually lived and experienced first hand. These two guys I'm referring to are well into their 80's ( I think the first is 89), andhaveso much to share.

 

[GotGarlic]

Like a lot of Italian cooking, there is no one recipe for minestrone. It is simply a vegetable soup made with the vegetables available in a given season, or location. It often has rice or pasta, but doesn't have to. The base is usually a bean broth.

My first thought was that the soup Larry is looking for may be a very local, or even family variation of a minestrone. That is just a guess, but it is as good as any other guess.

CD

I realize that, which is why I said "usually." The purée, though is pretty unusual. Maybe it's a variation specific to the family Larry knows.

 

[GotGarlic]

Im probably going with this.
He referred to it as 'vegetable soup' through his very thick Italian accent.
What I got is that the original recipe ( that his daughter made) was jus that.

After you make minestrone, you can turn it into ribollita (reboiled in Italian) [emoji2] We had this for the first time in a lovely restaurant in Florence, Italy. It's basically leftover minestrone reheated the next day, with day-old bread added to thicken. You can also add additional vegetables to the leftovers, but then you might end up with a never-ending pot of soup, like Cooking Goddess [emoji38]

Here's one take on it. This isn't really traditional, as it's made in one day, but it's a start: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/06/ribollita-italian-summer-vegetables-stew-recipe.html