Savoy cabbage soup to keep you warm

For a few months, I posted every week a healthy recipe on Benessere.com: these recipes were based on seasonal fruit and vegetables, easy and light cooking methods, wholesome ingredients, whole flours, beans, and other cereals. The project ended in September, but I am still craving that kind of food. So, I thought I would share them with you here, as they are quick, easy, wholesome recipes perfect for busy weeknight meals.

Potato and Savoy cabbage soup

I had a few vegetables sitting in the fridge and in the pantry for way too long, they needed a good end of their story: half a Savoy cabbage, a few yellow potatoes from Val di Chiana, one single red onion, a leek, and a heart of celery. Just chop them and collect them in a saucepan with some water to simmer, and you make a soup. Easy.

Well, to tell the truth, there’s something more that will make you lick the spoon until shining, and clean the bowl with your finger: first, your best extra virgin olive oil, second, a few toasted black peppercorns. Toast the pepper and finely chop it with your knife: this will infuse an exotic taste to your soup. These two ingredients make a huge difference. End with a spoonful of grated aged pecorino, end enjoy your soup.

This potato and Savoy cabbage soup is what we call vellutata in Italy.

The English word soup translates to several Italian words. It can be a zuppa, when there’s some bread in it, a minestrone, a brothy soup with diced vegetables that can be enriched with pasta, rice, barley, or farro, or a vellutata, as in today’s recipe, when the vegetables are pureéd and thickened into a velvety soup.

More recipes with Savoy cabbage from the blog archive

• Grilled sausages and Sauerkraut. Today we won’t follow the fermentation route, but we’ll opt instead for a cooking process that gives the cabbage a delicate sweet and sour taste. You start by finely slicing the cabbage with a sharp knife or, if you have it, with a slicer or a mandolin. The finer, the better. Once you have finely shredded the cabbage – beware, it tends to multiply its volume, only to reduce again once cooked -, blanch it in a pot of salted slightly acidic water, thanks to a little white wine vinegar. The blanching will soften the cabbage, leaving it al dente. Now drain the cabbage and place it under cold running water to halt the cooking process.

Related posts:

Potatoes and mozzarella casserole Cosy winter soup: spelt and roveja with thyme Pumpkin risotto. Valentine’s Day and a novice in the kitchen Broccoli and squash flans, and the 4 things I’d save of 2020