Lentil Soup

LENTIL SOUP

A friend of mine asked if I had a family recipe for lentil soup that he wanted to try for Lent.  The closest thing to a family recipe for lentils was my mom’s PASTA LENDDICHIA.  I never liked it, never ate it and subsequently never made it.  I am not sure where she got that recipe.  She just told me that this was one of the depression dishes her family ate mainly because it was inexpensive.  I vaguely recall that the three main ingredients were tomato paste, lentils and wide egg noodles.  What I do remember about the preparation of this dish was that she poured the lentils on the table a little at a time and painstakingly went through them separating the “good” lentils from the “bad”.  Lentils are usually flatten, smooth round disks and grey/green in color. These are the good ones.  The “bad” ones were more often darker and misshaped and somewhat shriveled and bumpy.  There were also small stones mixed in there too.  It is still a mystery how they got there.  The good ones were then rinsed thoroughly, placed in a pot with water and cooked till tender.  After that, I don’t recall what else my mom did.  I am guessing that after the lentils were cooked, she added the tomato paste and whatever seasonings she used and cooked it a bit longer. I remember the ‘sauce’ was thick.  The noodles were cooked separately and added to this thick mixture and served.  I never ate this dish.  But I remember my cousins Dan and Pasquale loved it.  And whenever she made it, she would always save some for them.

I am afraid that her recipe is lost, like so many things from that generation.  My mom was the ‘old soul’ of the family.  She was the family historian and was able to trace back our family to her grandmother’s mother and father as well as her father’s grandmother and grandfather. She also remembered the stories her grandmother told her about the towns from which the family immigrated. One piece of history that I recall was the story her grandmother told her about when she was a young girl and Garibaldi, the unifier of Italy, came through the region and the crowds greeted him along the way. I wish I could remember half of the stories she told.

If anyone out there has a recipe for the PASTA LENDICCHIA, please post here or let me know and I will post on this blog.

In any case, I did a little research for my friend and found a recipe for lentil soup that I am putting here.

Enjoy!! 

LENTIL AND ESCAROLE SOUP

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium carrot, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium celery rib, diced

6 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (repeat hint about parsley)

1 14ounce can of diced tomatoes (if tomatoes are in season, dice two medium size ripe tomatoes)

8 ounces of brown lentils, sorted and rinsed (see above narrative for the reasoning behind this)

2 cups of water

4 cups chicken or vegetable broth

(Here are a couple of questions for you strict Lenten observers.  Do you consider chicken broth meat?  Would you use it in your Lenten dishes?.  If you consider it meat, then use the vegetable broth.  It will, however,  affect the taste.)

2 bay leaves

A 2 by 4 piece of a Parmesan cheese rind - Optional  or substitute ¼ grated cup.

(This is not going be easy to find if you don’t buy your cheeses in bulk.  On Randolph near Halsted there was an Italian cheese shop where I would go and buy whole rounds of Asiago cheese. My mom and my uncle Jerry and Aunt Lu would then split the wheel and have whole chunks of it.  I know Uncle Jerry and  Aunt Lu shared it with their kids.

8 ounces of escarole cut and chopped.

Salt and Pepper to taste – If your broth is salted there is no need to add additional salt

Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

1.       Over medium heat and in heavy pot or Dutch oven, combine olive oil and all the fresh vegetables and cook, stirring often.  Cook until all the vegetables soften and very lightly browned.  Do not get ahead of yourself by raising the heat yet.  Let the vegetables slowly release their flavors.

2.       Add the tomatoes, lentils, water, broth, bay leaves and Parmesan rind and bring to a rolling boil.

3.       Once it has started to boil, lower heat and simmer until lentils have softened.  Length of time varies on the lentils but should be about  an hour or so.

4.       Add the escarole and cook an additional 5 minutes, until escarole had wilted

5.       Season to taste and serve immediately in soup bowls sprinkling with Parmesan cheese