Recipe: Soupe au Pistou

 

Soup au Pistou

by Marisa Fontana

This recipe is a favorite in our family and one that my French mother-in-law taught me and the flavors are as Provençale as it gets! The pistou is a paste made from fresh basil, garlic, salt and olive oil. In this recipe, I also add two small cooked potatoes to the pistou and help thicken up the soup. 

It is a versatile recipe to use when you have an abundance of summer vegetables – think tomatoes and zucchini. Usually also included are green beans, carrots and some form of dried beans. When I saw the fresh bunch of basil this week, I couldn’t resist making a pot of soupe au pistou immediately. I skipped the green beans and used a can of cannellini beans for a quicker soup.

For portioning, I used half the carrots from the farm share, all of the summer squash, single tomato, two small potatoes, and the entire bunch of basil. This made a large pot of soup.

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Ingredients

• 1 head of garlic, peeled
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 3 summer squash, diced
• 1 bunch of basil, destemmed 
• 1 can of cannellini beans
• 2 potatoes, peeled
• Roughly 6-8 small carrots from Cream of the Crop. If using typical sized carrots, 2-3 carrots diced

Step 1. 
Boil large pot of water with the two potatoes and salt (rougly 1 teaspoon) (this water will not be thrown away, so don’t over salt)
After roughly 10-15 minutes, throw in diced tomatoes, summer squash and carrots into the water.

Step 2: Make the Pistou
When potatoes are soft (around 20-25 minutes), scoop them out and drop in a blender
Add to blender basil leaves and peeled garlic (yes, I used an entire head! But feel free to cut back by half if you prefer a lighter taste), top up generously with olive oil and a ladle of cooking water
Blend on high until mixture becomes a paste. 

Step 3.
Pour the pistou paste into the cooking water while stirring gently to combine
Add salt and pepper to taste.