Читать книгу Kitchen Memories - Lucy Boyd - Страница 39

3 celery sticks, ends trimmed

4 carrots, washed or peeled, ends trimmed

500g peas in the pod, which yields about 200g fresh peas

1 bundle of fresh green English asparagus, about 350g, tough ends snapped off, washed

1.5 litres chicken stock

olive oil

a small knob of butter

1 medium-sized red onion, peeled and finely chopped

200g chard, leaves stripped from their stalks and washed, stalks crossways cut into 5mm slices (or spring greens or crinkled spinach, removed from the stem)

3 medium-sized Charlotte potatoes (or any waxy variety will do), peeled and cut into roughly 1.5cm pieces

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 × 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes, drained of their juice

1 small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, washed and dried

4 slices of ciabatta bread

100g Parmesan cheese

extra-virgin olive oil

salt and black pepper

Slice each celery stick lengthways into 5mm-thick strips, then chop the strips across about mm thick. Do the same with the carrots, so that you end up with roughly the same size pieces as the celery. Pod the peas into a bowl. Slice the asparagus spears at an angle into pieces about 5mm thick.

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer.

Add a slug of olive oil and the butter to a heavy-based pan and, as the butter starts to sizzle, add the onion, celery, carrots, chard stalks and potatoes. Turn the heat to low to medium and let the vegetables sweat gently for about minutes. They should not brown, but just soften.

Add the garlic and let it soften, then add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until they start to fall apart. Add enough of the hot stock so that it comes about two-thirds up the pan and let it simmer very gently for minutes or so, stirring occasionally, to help break up the tomatoes.

Check the potatoes are just cooked but not overdone, then roughly shred the chard or spinach leaves and add them to the soup, along with the peas and asparagus, making sure there is enough stock to submerge them. Simmer for about 5 minutes until they are just tender, then season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the grill. Roughly chop the parsley and grill the ciabatta. Ladle the soup into the bowls and add a scattering of parsley and a grating of Parmesan. Finish with a little extra-virgin olive oil and serve with a piece of the grilled bread.