Mushroom, fennel, noodle soup
I went to a Bauch, Beine, Po class tonight, and it just about killed me. (That’s Belly, Legs, Bum for all you anglophiles.) I had absolutely no energy afterward to cook dinner. Also, I hadn’t been shopping for a few days and had very little in the fridge–just a large pack of crimini mushrooms and a small head of fennel, plus a number of leftovers. My mom suggested I make soup, and so I did.
I quartered the mushrooms, and sauteed them in a little bit of butter briefly. (Maybe 1.5 tsp?) Then I added a little white wine and let the mushrooms soften slightly. I added about 4 cups of water, a few big pinches of truffle salt, a couple pieces of dried porcini mushroom (crumbled), some freshly ground black pepper and one no-salt bouillon cube, and let it all come to a simmer. Meanwhile, I used my mandoline to slice the fennel very thinly. When the soup started to boil I added the fennel and offed the heat. I also added a cup or so of leftover “cabbage noodles” (a variant of this recipe, which I will hopefully blog about shortly). I let the soup stand while I toasted two slices of rye, multi-seeded bread. I then broke a clove of garlic in half and scraped the garlic all over the now-crusty bread. (I learned this trick from my friend Amira, who learned it in Italy.) I topped the soup with cubed pieces of the garlic bread, and a little freshly grated parmigiana-reggiano.
It hit the spot. Derek liked it too. There wasn’t a whole lot of broth, but it had an intense, mushroom flavor. The mushrooms were still pretty fat and juicy, and the fennel was lovely (as always in soup). The raw garlic on the “croutons” (and to a lesser extent the black pepper) added quite a bit of heat. Rating: B+
Derek said it was satisfying and earthy, but not overcooked and stewy–more like some stuff with a little light broth in the bottom. It reminded him of fancy restaurants where they bring you a bowl of something then the waiter pours a little broth over it at the table. Rating: B+
The captious vegetarian 