They say man cannot live on bread alone. I am not convinced. I think I could live on bread alone. There are so many types! You can put fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, etc into bread – totally a balanced meal. But if I make something other than bread (or anything else baked), then it’s usually soup. I love making soup! And is it a coincidence that it goes so well with bread? Perhaps…
Ingredients
Chopped veggies ready for the pot. The eggplant has already been cooked down in the microwave
Making the pestata (like pesto without the cheese and pine nuts).
Cooking the eggplant, onion and potatoes.
Make way for the tomato paste. See the brown fond developing on the bottom of the pot? Flavortown.
Cook the zucchini and bell peppers in a separate skillet.
Veggies and pestata, before being added to the soup pot. The smell when the pestata hits the hot skillet is unreal!
Pre and post fresh basil
And of course, nothing goes better with soup than homemade bread. May I suggest a loaf of no-knead?
The final product. Sprinkled with some fresh parmesan and served with Irish Brown Bread.
Italian Vegetable Stew (Ciambotta)
Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
Pestata
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup fresh oregano leaves
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Stew
12 ounces eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 medium eggplant)
Salt
4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 1/4 cups water
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, drained with juice reserved and chopped coarse
2 zucchini, 8 ounces each, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 red or yellow bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup shredded fresh basil
Directions for Pestata
Process all ingredients in food processor until finely ground, scraping the sides as necessary. Set aside
Looks absolutely delicious!
Thank you so much!
Looks yumm! Will have to try this out.
What’s not to like about any Italian dish? But then, I’m probably prejudice, being Italian,
Haha, I agree, can’t go wrong with Italian! That’s why I married one 🙂
I love how healthy, colourful and appetising this looks. I’m going to try it!
Thank you! It is full of so many vegetables, and the fresh herbs give it such a fresh, vibrant flavor.
I chopped up all the vegetables last night and I’m making this for dinner after work today. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I’ll be freezing some because a week or two in the freezer can do miraculous things to the flavor of soups.
I hope you love it! I love freezing soup, it is the best for busy weeknight meals!
Some ATK recipes I will try and realize I won’t like them no matter what. Others don’t turn out so well but show promise so I keep working at them. This one was the latter. It wasn’t great but it was totally due to my own fault. The biggest mistake was using tomatoes canned in puree. The tomato flavor was overpowering. Next time I’ll try it with tomatoes packed in juice or fresh tomatoes. Second problem was too much fresh oregano. Again my own fault. I just threw in a whole bunch without bothering to measure out 1/3 cup like the recipe says. Thirdly, the potatoes were a bit underdone. I often don’t cook them quite enough because I know I’ll be reheating it and I hate mushy potatoes. Lastly I used too much salt on the eggplant, but then I generally don’t like very much salt in foods.
The success of the recipe is how the eggplant melted into the silky sauce. What a great technique! I’ll try it again in a couple of weeks and do it right. I’ll also use a lot fewer potatoes and throw in some cannellini beans instead.