The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (22 page)

Cabbage and bacon
Use smoked bacon, or the end of a joint of ham, cooked with the onion at the start. Odd though it sounds, ¼ teaspoon of ground cumin for 1 small cabbage will lift the soup out of the ordinary. Sprinkle over crisp diced bacon to serve.

Tomato
Drop the tomatoes into a big bowl of just-boiled water for a minute and the skins will peel off easily. Chop roughly, discarding the seeds. Simmer in stock (or half and half with milk for a creamier result) and serve with a dollop of soured cream and some chopped basil or chives.

These Italian soups are the best when it comes to using up spring and summer vegetables or hearty winter leaves in a delicious and satisfying broth. Minestrone and ribollita are similar in technique but vary in ingredients – minestrone being the summery cousin and ribollita the one I crave on the return from a long, cold walk. They are both endlessly variable according to what you have to hand.

Ribollita
means re-boiled, so this warming, hearty soup was
invented
to use up leftover food, especially pulses. Traditionally, it is made with the dark Italian cabbage called cavolo nero but it is just as good with Swiss chard, kale or purple sprouting broccoli. Don’t worry too much if you don’t have all the ingredients listed below – the soup will not suffer.

Serves 4

olive oil for frying (and some extra virgin olive oil for drizzling on the top
)

1 large red onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 head of celery, chopped (include the leaves
)

4 carrots, chopped

leaves from a bunch of parsley, chopped

400g can of plum tomatoes, drained

a big bunch of cavolo nero, kale or purple sprouting broccoli, finely shredded

400g can of white beans, such as butterbeans, cannellini or borlotti ½-1 loaf of stale baguette, ciabatta or similar bread, torn into chunks salt and pepper

Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a large saucepan or frying pan, add the onion and garlic and cook gently until softened. Then add the celery, carrots and parsley and toss the whole lot well to coat it in the oil. Cook gently for 5-7 minutes, until the carrots are beginning to soften. Add the tomatoes (snip them with scissors if they are not already chopped) and cook for 10 minutes. Add the cavolo nero, kale or broccoli and the can of beans, with enough of the liquid from the can just to cover the greens. You may need to add a little hot water from the kettle, but don’t swamp it. Simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, until the greens are just tender. Add the bread, season to taste and then serve with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. The soup should be chunky with a pool of liquid -just enough to hold it all together.

Bearing in mind that the spirit of this soup lies in the juxtaposition of starch (the beans) and the strong greens, and in the dance between chunky texture and lip-smacking broth, you could also experiment with:

Other green vegetables
Substitute peas, spinach or finely shredded cabbage for the cavolo nero.

Bottled artichoke hearts and frozen broad beans
A delicious combination to replace the cavolo nero and beans, giving a slight hint of summer. Just before serving, stir in a good handful of finely chopped herbs, such as mint, parsley or coriander.

Fennel and broad beans
These work well together too. For a meatier kick, just add some bits of lightly browned bacon or torn-up prosciutto before serving.

Chickpeas and diced chorizo
Skin the chorizo and dice or crumble it. Cook it with the onion at the start until its oily juices begin to run. Use canned chickpeas in place of the beans. This makes a marvellously robust soup and the tang of the greens chimes deliciously with the spicy chorizo.

Minestrone is less gutsy than ribollita, relying on pasta rather than bread and fresh peas or beans rather than dried pulses. It’s a lighter way of using up courgettes, peas, small broad beans or early French beans and, though the ingredients list below may look daunting, it’s really up to you what you put in. In general, the smaller you dice the vegetables, the better.

If you’re using fresh tomatoes, remove the skins first by letting them sit in just-boiled water for one minute and then pricking them with the point of a knife. The skin should burst open, allowing you to peel it off easily. If it doesn’t, leave the tomatoes for a little longer. Roughly chop them before adding them to the soup, discarding the seeds if you like.

It is traditional to use up small amounts of leftover cooked pasta in this soup – either small macaroni or fine spaghettini or linguine, cut into lengths of about 2.5 cm. Equally, you could use leftover rice or a small amount of cooked beans or pulses, such as chickpeas or cannellini beans. Just add any of these to the broth a minute before serving.

There’s nothing to stop you adding some fine strips of leftover poultry to the soup right at the end.

Serves 4

1 onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, crushed olive oil

2 celery sticks, chopped into slim half-moons

1 leek, finely sliced, and/or 1 fennel bulb, diced, its leaves finely chopped

2 new potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice

1 litre vegetable or chicken stock (see
pages 27
-
30
)

2 courgettes, cut into small dice

about 400g early-summer peas or French beans (or both
)

2 large or 3 small tomatoes, skinned and chopped (optional
)

a handful of linguine, broken into pieces about 2.5cm long (optional
)

salt and pepper

To serve:

about 2 teaspoons Pesto (see
page 139
)

extra virgin olive oil

freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Sweat the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until softened, then add the celery, leek and/or fennel. When these have softened, add the potatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender, then add the remaining vegetables and simmer gently for 10 minutes. If you want to add the linguine, do so at the same time as the peas and beans, checking that it is properly cooked before serving. Season to taste.