Pontelandolfo’s fields of potatoes dug up, saved, cooked and eaten!
What do you do when your good friend Mariann arrives with a trunk load of potatoes? No, Mariann didn’t grow them, her lovely neighbor who has a huge farm and always brings her fruit and vegetables, did. There were too many potatoes for Maryann to deal with, so she graciously popped by with some for me. Well, maybe I didn’t really get a trunk full. Maybe I just got pounds and pounds. Don’t ask me how many pounds it was too heavy to carry. So, I figured that it had to be about a pazillion pounds.
Now came the dilemma, what do I do with them? Mash and freeze? Chop, blanch and freeze? Stare at the box? I really didn’t want to just use the local delicious potatoes for mundane mashed potatoes. Hmmmm, I thought, it’s almost winter here in the Sannio Hills. What would be better than having potato soup in the freezer to eat on a cold and stormy night? Never having made potato soup, the first thing I did was what every good chef does. I googled potato soup! I started with the New York Times recipes. Then I went onto the Pioneer woman and then I went onto. I don’t even remember what I read or who I stole ideas from. I do remember, I sipped a scotch because one should sip a scotch when making potato soup. Scrambling all the recipes in my brain, I amalgamated what I thought were the best of the best and it worked.
So here is my magic hearty potato soup adventure, made with potatoes farmed in my favorite Italian village, Pontelandolfo. Number one, open your refrigerator and take out any leftover bits and pieces of prosciutto, pancetta or plain old bacon and chop it up into tiny baby pieces. I had two or three cups worth. Put that in a bowl and sip more scotch. Then grab the celery, onions and carrots and get ready to make that wonderful Italian thing called – called. What is the French name – come on you know – mirepoix! There must be something like that in Italian for my two or three cups worth of carrots, celery, and onions, chopped into tiny baby pieces. Soffritto! Put them in a bowl. Where is my sous chef! (Don’t tell anyone – I altered the soffritto recipe. Since I can’t eat anything without garlic I also added chopped up garlic.) The biggest prep bowl contained the potatoes which had been really washed. Dug up with love, they were covered in local mud. I peeled and diced them into tiny pieces.
Time to start cooking. Don’t put anything in the bottom of a heavy Dutch oven except the chopped up leftover pieces of fatty meat and let them sizzle. Stir and toss until all the fat has oozed out. When you have a nice greasy bottom and crispy pieces then add the soffritto. Bopping to my blues playlist, I kept stirring them and enjoying the marvelous scents. When they were soft, I added the potatoes, covered them with water and tossed in cheese rinds, salt and pepper. Cheese rinds are one of my go to “herbs.” We buy our cheese locally and I save rind trims in the freezer. They add a richness to everything. Then I put a lid on the pot lowered the flame to barely there and walked away for eight hours.
Not one of the cookbooks said to slow cook the soup. But, I figured if you wanted to get a rich flavor and you weren’t going to use chicken broth or beef broth or some other broth, but just that wonderful blend of root vegetables slow cook it! Besides if you slow cook something, you don’t have to watch it. Oh, I forgot, when I added the potatoes, I also added chopped parsley. Obviously local parsley stolen from Zia Victoria’s garden. Later that day when the potatoes were soft, I remembered that one recipe said add butter and heavy cream. Well, I didn’t have heavy cream so I added partially skimmed milk and about 200 grams of butter. The soup looked interesting but it didn’t look extra creamy. I got out my immersion blender and a colander. I took half of the potatoes out of the liquid – what a mess. Actually, it would be easier with another person holding the colander over the pot with half of the potatoes in it. Brrrrrrrrr, my immersion blender and made what remained into a heavy creamy base. Then I added back the potatoes, gave it a stir added more salt and pepper tasted it and went “ah ha.” I knew just what it needed – fresh grated cheeses from Sannio Latte. After throwing in a couple handfuls, I let the soup simmer for a bit and then, Jack and I enjoyed the most delectable homegrown potato soup. Yes, I did freeze a batch too.
Let me know if you have a favorite way to use a truck full of potatoes!
Ci vediamo!
Speaking of Fall! My play, Many Snows Ago, is the perfect fall addition to any elementary school classroom. Each scene is a complete story that shares the history, humor and knowledge of the indigenous Eastern Woodland People. It is available from Next Stage Press.
