marcella hazan's potato soup with split green peas.

marcella hazan's potato soup with split green peas.

• 15 Jun 2015

Last week was one of those weeks. I spent the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend in Brisbane and flew back to Sydney with a cold and no energy to cook or go shopping. The cupboard was pretty bare. I knew I wanted soup and I'd planned to make some lentil soup when I spied this recipe for potato soup with split green peas in 'The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' by Marcella Hazan. I checked the cupboard and the fridge and found I had all the ingredients I needed, so set to work making the soup.

When you read the recipe, the soup has hardly any ingredients and very few processes. 

You know how I love to change things up, well I didn't with this recipe at all. I just added a garnish of fresh oregano and some green peas.



Here's the recipe for you.

Potato Soup with Split Green Peas - from Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes

250 g (8 oz) dried split green peas

1.25 litres (5 cups) homemade meat broth or 1 cup canned beef broth and 4 cups water

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

freshly grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them up into chunks. Rinse them under cold water and drain. Rinse the split peas under cold water and drain.

Put the potatoes and peas in a soup pot with 750 mls of broth, then cover and cook over medium heat, at a gentle boil, until the potatoes and peas are both tender (about 30 - 45 minutes). Turn off the heat. Purée the potatoes and peas with a stick blender or put through a food mill.

Warm the butter and oil in a small skillet, then cook the onions and until the onions are golden. Pour the contents of the skillet into the pot with the potatoes and peas, add the remaining broth, cover, and turn on the heat to medium. Adjust the heat so that the soup boils at a steady but slow boil. Cook until all of the butter and oil has become evenly distributed into the broth.

Before turning off the heat, swirl in the grated parmesan, then taste and correct for salt.

A steaming bowl of hot soup, served with bread and lashings of butter. Just what the doctor ordered!

See you all again next week,

Jillian