Potato, porcini and chestnut soup. It’s just home cooking.

I have spent many words in the praise of Elizabeth David, a British food writer who helped Britain rediscover good food in the ’60s. She is still one of the finest examples of how to write about food. Her writing is warm, sensual, essential, elegant.

Elizabeth David had an adventurous life, she travelled the world, from Greece to Italy, from the South of France to India, bringing back to England the charm of these generous foreign cuisines. She also had a fiery temper and sometimes she could sound slightly snobbish. Her firm disposition often emerges in her books with an accent of humour or provocation. Reading her food memoirs, I’ve frequently dreamt to be like her, to write like her, to have her sensibility, elegance and charm.

Then I discovered Laurie Colwin

Then I stumbled upon this article in the New York Times and read Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. I discovered a woman I now admire, a food writer whose books are now on my bed table. She makes me feel normal, both in the way I live my life and in the way I cook. And believe me, this is quite difficult sometimes.

Laurie Colwin is an American novelist, born in Manhattan, who published many short stories and wrote for Gourmet Magazine. Her passion for food writing was second only to the pleasure of sharing that food with friends. She also published two collections of essays, recipes and memories, Home cooking and More home cooking.

There are moments when I question all my skills and my way of cooking. I feel like I am never enough. Not brilliant enough, not up to date enough with the latest trends in food, not profound enough, as my kitchen is not creative enough, refined enough. It’s just home cooking, after all.

Then I open one of her books, and it’s like breathing fresh air.

They are light, funny, but at the same time, you can find many ironic or deep reflections among easy recipes and warm memories. Laurie Colwin is a woman you would like to call a friend, the one that passes you recipes handwritten on a slip of paper, the one that makes you believe you can make it just right even in your tiny and poorly equipped kitchen. She doesn’t take herself too seriously – after all, she is writing about food, not saving the world. She is fun, genuine, spontaneous, a burst of pure energy, a real source of inspiration.

She describes herself as a homebody in the first pages of Home Cooking, and I can relate to every single word:

Unlike some people, who love to go out, I love to stay home. (…) I love to eat out, but even more, I love to eat in. The best dinner party I ever went to was a black-tie affair to celebrate a book, catered by the author’s sister. When the food appeared at this party I could scarcely contain my delight. It was home food! (…) The thing about homebodies is that they can usually be found at home. I usually am, and I like to feed people.

Laurie Colwin is the friend whose dinner invitation you would accept at once.

She would serve you home food, simple, unpretentious, unforgettable. You would eat your way to the dessert with a satisfied smile on your face, happy as when you rejoice in your best childhood memories.

In the ’80s, the years of vodka and salmon pasta, of rocket leaves on each plate and shrimp cocktail, when appearing was more important than being, Laurie writes about real, healthy food. She takes account of low budgets and tiny kitchens, she opts for organic food, before it was fashionable, she prefers white meat to the red one, she cooks with seasonal ingredients, she shows with humour her kitchen as big as a closet, where she was able to host a crowd for a party. Laurie is a modern woman, an example to follow, someone who never makes you feel out of place.

Potato, porcini, and chestnut soup

It took me some time to reach the point where I start talking about the recipe, but a few days ago I read again a chapter of Home Cooking where Laurie talks about her menu ideas for dinner parties with friends and this soup seemed so appropriate. This is home food, a dish that can easily please your friends for dinner, leaving them with the comforting memory of a steaming hot soup that welcomed them to your table. This potato, porcini, and chestnut soup will make you happy, too, as you can make it in advance, it does not require special attention or special equipment and you can focus instead on the dessert or the main course, while the soup simmers bubbling on the stove.

Potatoes and mushrooms cook on low heat for about an hour, until the soup is creamy. You crumble some pre-cooked chestnuts into the soup when it is almost ready to give it even more sweetness and creaminess. Keep a few chestnuts aside, if you manage not to eat them all, and top the soup with chestnuts, parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil before serving it to your friends.

More recipes with mushrooms from the blog archive

• Porcini risotto. If you do not have fresh porcini mushrooms you can still use frozen ones, even though the risotto won’t have the same intensity, or a sachet of good quality dried porcini. I admit I used often frozen porcini, nobody’s perfect.
• Pasta alla boscaiola. This is a mushroom-based sauce for pasta, made in the woodland style. Pasta alla boscaiola is a recipe with a delightful ’80s allure, like all the dishes featuring cream. It is impossible to trace back to the original recipe, as there are endless variations.
• Barley risotto with chanterelles. An orzotto is just a risotto made with orzo, barley. Have you ever tried it? You’ll be surprised and you might change your routine to introduce this cereal. Lately I am partial to barley, which I use often in soups, salads, and risotto: it’s a matter of texture, I love how it stays al dente, tiny pearls which magnificently absorb the flavour of any ingredient I marry it with.

Related posts:

Artusi’s potato cake from a century old recipe Castagnaccio, chestnut cake with ricotta. Waiting for Christmas Vegetarian lentil ragu. A gift and a pasta dressing A festive Chestnut Yule log and a Christmas video recipe