It’s cold outside so I started a soup series. It was my intention to have a creamy baked potato soup as part of this round-up, but those are everywhere. They're also delicious, so I'll probably do one anyway later, because of this prolonged cold spell.
But the potato soup today is different. A recurring caller to The Food Show always makes waves. He is a crusty old Sicilian, and I find his calls fascinating from a historical perspective, but also his manner and the unpredictability of the discourse. He makes me think…and do. Greg called and suggested I make a peasant-style soup that is old-style Sicilian, but it just happens to be hip because it is vegan. (I added the vegan part because Greg doesn’t give a flying Wallenda about anything vegan. Me neither, but I feel compelled to point out that it's vegan.)
I like simple, and this one couldn’t be any simpler. It is just boiled potatoes and water, with an egg stirred in for richness and olive oil, garlic and parsley. Because I was suspicious of any soup without modern assists like cream and cheese, I only made a small batch. My daughter would not be helping me eat this. I tweaked his instructions because when he told me about the soup, he said that the egg would be stringy like Asian soups. Since this occurs when the hot liquid meets cold or room temp egg, I decided to let the potato liquid cool. I don't like the sight of stringy egg in soup. The recipe follows:
Ingredients:
1 large white Idaho potato (though you may use whatever potatoes you like)
6 large cloves of garlic (use more or less to your taste)
⅓ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup olive oil
1 large egg
Cover the potato in water and boil the potato on the cooktop until it is falling apart.
In a skillet, fry the garlic (either chopped or whole or a combination) and parsley in the olive oil.
After the potato is cooled, whisk the egg into the potato until the potato has broken into a soup consistency. Add water to thin as necessary.
Whisk in the garlic and parsley and include the olive oil into the soup and return to the cooktop.
Garnish with a little parsley and some fried garlic, cracked black pepper, and drizzle more olive oil to serve.
