Soups and Broths

For centuries, homes in the Italian contryside have been scented by the pot of soup that hangs permanently over the coals in the fireplace, welcomming the farmer home from the fields and hunter home from the forest. Soaps are among the most ancient staples of Italian cuisine. Very much of plesant origin, they are the ultimate comfort food: economical to prepare, yet tasty and nourishing. Mainly made of vegetables and legumes, they are often flavoured with a soffritto of olive oil, onion and pancetta, and bulked up with a handful of pastina (tiny pasta shapes) or fragments shaken from the bottom of the container where the dryed pasta can ge stored. Eaten with bread, and topped with some olive oil or pesto, the soup becomes a meal in itself.

Then there are the lighter soup , made with a clear broth (brodo) to which pasta has been added, and designed to be eaten as an appetiser. In taly, broths are very populare in the months from autumn to spring. Many houses have pots of broth simmering on the stove, in preparation for tortellini in brodo, passatelli in brodo, or simply to be striped as a consomme before the hot entree at an elegant dinner party, served in those beautifully delicate cups with two handles.

in this chapter we discuss types of pasta in brodo, and tell you how to make some great basic stocks. Stocks will keep in the fridge for tree days, or in the freezer for up to six mounths. You can freeze it in ice-cube trys, then pop the cubes out of the trays and store them in a ziplock freezer bag.