spring time noodle soup
Hello! It’s spring!
Most of my cooking currently is almost nonexistent. This is why writing recipes from the months of April to October is so painful for me, I hardly do any cooking.
I am cooking but the intensity in which I am is lacking. Most of it involves grilling and blanching quickly, kosher salt and lemon.
This recipe is inspired by the French court-bouillon, an intense cooking liquid used for poaching vegetables or for quick cooking meats like shrimp and fish. Onions, garlic, bouquet garni (a bundle of herbs).
This is just an excuse to flex your French.
Boiled food is inadvertently underrated. It has gotten a bad reputation over the years as a cheap and lazy way of cooking, but it’s no different than sautéing or grilling. Like the former two, boiling food has its own way of transforming it physically; they become Jamy and tender.
This soup takes the entire court bouillon, adds pasta and creates a heart spring meal that tastes just as it should. Of fresh spring onions, intense anise fennel and brine of a fresh lemon; clean, fresh and of the spring.
It’s something that I will keep going to as a perpetual stew. Throwing new vegetables into the broth to make it even more verdant.
But whenever I do this, the key, butter. Always butter. Stirring in cold butter into hot broth turns the entire pot into velvet, a true wonder.
Spring vegetable noodle soup
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
One large fennel bulb
One bunch of green onions
1 ½ cups of peas, lima beans etc.
4-5 small new potatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
2 bay leaves
8 oz of pasta - rigatoni, casarecce, etc.
3 tbsp of unsalted butter
8 cups of water
Kosher salt
Instructions
In a large, heavy bottom pot bring the water to a boil. While it comes to a boil, roughly chop the fennel bulb, green onions and using the back of a knife, smash the garlic but keep it whole and cut the potatoes into ¼ - ½ inch thick slices.
Once the water has come to a boil, add all the vegetables except the peas. Add the bay leaves and squeeze the juice of half a lemon, then season with salt to taste.
Cook the vegetables for 20-25 minutes on medium heat at a simmer. Once the potatoes are cooked, add the peas to cook for an additional 60-90 seconds until tender.
In a separate pot, bring heavily salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until fully cooked. Drain the pasta and add it into the pot.
Adjust the soup with more salt and lemon as needed.
