LA SOUPE AU PISTOU

Elizabeth David cites “a famous Nicoise soup of which there are many variations, the essential ingredient being the with which the soup is flavoured, and which pounded to a paste with and olive oil”…. and the reference goes on to . She continues, “The Nicois have borrowed this sauce from their neighbours [the Genoese] and adapted it to suit their own tastes, and called it in the local dialect pistou. It is the addition of this sauce to the soup which gives it, it’s name and it’s individuality. Without it, the soup would be simply a variation of minestrone”.

Many recipes include vermicelli or pasta, I have chosen not to.

A couple of things before we start cooking. Garlic doesn’t agree with me and I usually don’t cook with it at home, however, I still add a token amount in the work environment. If I do use garlic, I prefer to have it roasted, so if you are going to cook from here, roast some garlic and store it in the fat in a sealed container in the fridge. It’s going to last for a month, in some recipes [but not this] feel free to leave the garlic out, I often do. Salt, Murray River pink inland salt is the only sort of salt I would consider using, I carry it everywhere. Black pepper is always freshly milled.

Scraps, maybe it’s age, when I cook at home now, I toss all of the skins, ends and other vegetable trimmings in a plastic bag, label it, freeze it and then next time I am making stock, there it is.

Ingredients

2lts chicken broth [recipe follows] 1 large brown onion, diced in .5cm pieces 1 , white only, rinsed and sliced [wash the green part for the stock] 2 ribs celery, diced to the size of the onion 1 cup navy beans, or great northern beans [soaked overnight in cold water] 200 grms French beans, trimmed and cut at 1cm lengths 400 grms fresh broad beans [in the pod, see below] 1 green zucchini, diced 2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut at 1cm lengths 400 grms fresh peas, [in the pod] 4 ripe tomatoes, blanched, skinned and diced in 1 cm cubes 4 desiree potatoes, diced in 1cm cubes salt ground black pepper

Firstly you need to cook the navy beans. Place them in a pot and cover with twice the volume of cold water, bring to the boil, and then simmer for 45 minutes until they are tender, but not falling apart.

Make the pistou, recipe follows.

Broad beans have two skins. Firstly there is the pod from which you will have to shell them. Each bean then has it’s own skin. While it is edible, the resulting bean when skinned is vastly superior. To remove the skin, blanch the beans in boiling salted water for 15 seconds then refresh in iced water. Now, the labour of love, tear or pince the end of each bean and squeeze the brilliantly green bean from its dull grey overcoat, trust me it’s worth the work.

Shell the peas.

In a little olive oil stew the onion until it is clear, but not coloured, add the leek and continue to cook to wilt the leek. Add the tomatoes, and in the words of monsieur Blancard “when they have melted”, fancy that melted tomatoes, then add the chicken broth and bring to the boil.

Add the potatoes, return to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the remaining vegetables, return to the boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes, taste and season.

To serve the soup place a generous soup spoon of pistou at the base of each bowl, swirl in two ladles of soup to allow the pistou to disperse through the soup. Some quote grated parmesan or gruyere to top, but not for me, I want fresh, green flavours, uncluttered by .

If you intend to store the soup chill it quickly to arrest the cooking process and retain the fresh crisp texture of the vegetables. Store the pistou with glad wrap pressed to the surface to avoid air contact and discolouring.

Pistou

2 cups loosely packed basil leaves, washed 3 cloves garlic [roasted for my preference] 100mls extra virgin olive oil salt black pepper

Off course this was once made in a mortar and pestle, now we have the food processor, magimix, call it what you may. Blend all of the ingredients to a coarse paste. Store as above, or freeze in ice cube trays for easy future use.

Chicken Broth

2 fresh chicken carcasses, chopped 500g chicken wings 1 onion, peeled and sliced [save the skins for future brown stocks] 1 carrot, peeled and sliced [carrot peelings are bitter and never used in stocks] leek greens from the trimmings 1 stick celery 2 bay leaves 6 peppercorns sprig of thyme and rosemary basil stalks, not essential, but you will have them on hand

Place all of the ingredients in a large stainless steel pot, except the thyme, rosemary and basil stalks, cover with four litres of cold water. Place on a high flame and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to allow the pot stock to simmer. Cook for four hours, occasionally skimming the fat from the surface. After three and a half hours add the herbs. Strain the finished stock, cool and then chill. Remove any fat that sets on the surface prior to using.