PEA & PANCETTA SOUP!
Hi my name is Lorraine and I am a food magazine addict! Now it's out in the open maybe I can deal with my little problem. Every month I buy - Olive, Delicious, Taste Italia and of course our own Irish food magazine "Food and Wine". The other day I was in the newsagents and I noticed a new one called "Foodie" but I resisted, I can't buy anymore!I do have a great excuse in that I leave them in La Cucina for customers to read while they are waiting for their food.
The thing is with all these magazines that I buy I never actually cook anything from them, I look at the pictures and think how nice something is and swear I'll cook it but I never do. So this month while reading "Food and Wine" magazine there were a few recipes that interested me and this pea and pancetta soup was one of them. I often find with food magazines that the recipes can be quite elaborate and if it requires a lot of ingredients I usually run a mile - sorry I should say walk, the word run doesn't exist in my vocabulary:)!
This recipe had everything I had in my fridge and cupboard so it was a winner, the only thing I had to buy was mint! To be honest I am a mint virgin, having never used it before in cooking, the only time I've had it is in some juicy "mojitos". A word of warning by the way if you want to make a mojito in Limerick on a Sunday - it's impossible. I tried 3 supermarkets for limes and Club Soda but to no avail! We had our Havana Club white rum and mint ready to go but it was not to be so a couple of peroni's in the evening sun had to suffice. It's amazing what a bit of sunshine does to the mind, it was far from mojitos we were brought up on!!
I've changed this recipe to serve more than 1 person and if you have never made soup this has to be the easiest recipe ever, there is very little work so no excuses people for buying packets or tins!!
WHAT YOU NEED:
- 1 tablespoon chopped shallots or 1/2 onion
- 2 slices pancetta or 50g diced bacon lardons
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 1/2 glass white wine
- 600ml chicken stock - 3 stock cubes in this case.
- 1 bag frozen peas - 450g
- 1 tablespoon butter
- mint and basil - the recipe called for a tablespoon of each but I would have found that too overpowering so I just put about 3 leaves of each. To be honest it was really tasty without the herbs but they did give it that extra flavour.
WHAT TO DO:
- heat the olive oil in a pot and add the shallots and pancetta and cook gently for 5 mins.
- add the garlic and cook for 1 min.
- turn up the heat, add the white wine and reduce by half.
- add the stock, bring to simmering point, reduce the heat and cook for about 20 mins.
- add the peas and cook until tender for about 5 mins.
- leave to cool down, add your herbs and liquidize.
- Re-heat, stir in the butter and season with salt and pepper.
- drizzle a little olive oil over the top and serve with some grilled ciabatta with olive oil!
It was definitely one of the tastiest soups we've had, you can make it vegetarian, hmm. hmm Laura and Mary T by omiting the pancetta and using half a dozen sage leaves instead!
Buon Appetito!!!
(Comment this)
Jen - I love the combination fo peas and pancetta even as a simple side dish with a splash white wine and a little onion. We have those Italian sausage in stock in La Cucina now.
Markh - No it's me missing something - a brain. Would you believe I re-read that post about 5 times. Editor's block!!!! It's fixed now! Mary T - enjoy your dinner, sounds inviting. Let me know how you get on with the vegetarian version! (Comment this)