On my way to the supermarket last night, I discovered that we were having our first really cold day of the season, which put me in the mood for nothing more than copious amounts of hot soup.
Ever since my rendition of the minestrone alla romagnola recipe I found in Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking had been a resounding success as part of my family's holiday festivities last year, I have been occasionally riffing on minestrone to see if I can perfect it.
With this in mind, I wandered around Wild Oats, buying potatoes, celery, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, beef broth, onions, and bread. Pretty standard ingredients; the real idea for this soup didn't come to me until I had changed into my nightgown and was starting to do the prep work.
I didn't feel like pulling out the recipe, which I had already deviated from substantially (the cabbage was out [on general principle], no beans, no zucchini, which I have never been particularly excited about), so, as I chopped, I started mulling the idea of quantities. How much of this stuff was I going to put in?
That's when the idea occurred to me: "What the hell? I'll just put it all in."
So, I made large chunks out of four big potatoes, two whole bunches of celery (or whatever the collective term for celery is - anyone know?), two yellow onions, ten thick carrots, and six cloves of garlic.
When I had it all simmering in two sticks of butter and enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the stockpot, the solid ingredients came to four inches in height in an 11-inch diameter stockpot.
To this, I added a rather large (but unspecified) amount of beef broth, three large cans of whole peeled roma tomatoes and one large can of diced roma tomatoes, with all of the accompanying juice, and a tube of tomato paste, filling the pot to about five inches below the brim, and filled it the rest of the way with water. Even with the water in it, the soup was thick with vegetable bits.
I also added some oregano, rosemary, crushed red pepper, and a tiny bit of cayenne powder.
When it was done simmering, an hour and a half later, I added the rigatoni and fusilli I had cooked and grated parmigiano reggiano on top.
With the first sip, I discovered pure ecstasy. This was exactly what I was looking for on such a freezing night. The broth was thick and heary, the chunks of vegetables were abundant and their texture perfect. The whole thing was warm, filling, replenishing soupy goodness. It filled me with a warm, cozy feeling that lasted for hours.
I named it "Minestrone Mucchio", a rough translation of my initial name "Shitload-of-good stuff Minestrone".
Comfort food is good stuff.
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