Description
This hearty and comforting Provençal soup contains finely chopped summer vegetables, beans, and pasta. Big dollops of pistou sauce are stirred into it, making the pistou soup all the more flavorful with the addition of basil, garlic, and cheese!
Ingredients
For the pistou sauce:
- 40g fresh basil leaves (1 ⅔ cups packed), from about 2 big bunches of basil
- 5 garlic cloves
- 90g grated parmesan (1 cup), plus a bit more to serve on top of the soup
- 75ml extra virgin olive oil (⅓ cup)
For the soup:
- 120g dried kidney beans (⅔ cup)
- 120g dried white beans (⅔ cup)
- 2 medium-sized carrots
- 1 turnip
- 2 celery sticks
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 medium-sized zucchinis
- 340g green beans (12 oz or ¾ lb)
- 4 medium-sized tomatoes
- 1 big potato
- 2850 ml water (12 cups)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp fine sea salt
- 115g dry ditalini (4 oz or 1 cup), traditionally you would break spaghetti into pieces
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
Instructions
- Soak the dried beans overnight. Place the kidney beans and the white beans in a large bowl. Add water to cover them by 7 cm (3 in) and let them soak overnight.
- Make the pistou sauce. Peel the garlic cloves and roughly chop them. Put the garlic and basil leaves in a food processor. Add the 90g (1 cup) of grated parmesan and the olive oil. Pulse, using the lowest speed, until the ingredients are well blended and the sauce reaches a spreadable consistency. I have to do it in batches because I only have a small food processor. If the pistou sauce is too thick, add some olive oil to thin it. Scrape the sauce into a serving bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge until needed. You can remove it from the fridge half an hour before serving the soup to bring it back to room temperature if you don’t want the sauce to be fridge-cold.
- Chop the ‘hard’ vegetables. Wash your vegetables thoroughly and dry them. Now is the time for the most time-consuming part of the recipe and I recommend you sit at a table for this. Peel the carrots and the turnip. Dice them into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces. Cut off the top and root of the celery sticks and dice them into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces. Peel the garlic cloves and finely chop them. Put everything you have chopped into a large bowl and set it aside for now. These are the ‘hard’ vegetables that will need longer cooking.
- Chop the ‘soft’ vegetables. Grab another large bowl, preferably a large mixing bowl into which you will put the chopped ‘soft’ vegetables. Trim the stems off the zucchinis and partially peel them (take off a strip here and there). Slice them in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Discard the seeds (it is useful to have a small bowl next to you). Chop the zucchinis into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces. Trim the stems off the green beans and discard the stems. Slice the green beans into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces. Peel the tomatoes and deseed them. Dice the flesh into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces. Peel the potato and dice it into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces. Add all of these into the mixing bowl. Congratulations, you are done chopping and you deserve a round of applause.
- Make the soup. Drain the beans in a colander and rinse them under cold running water. Add the beans to your largest cooking pot or a Dutch oven. Add the water and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to medium-low, cover with the lid, and cook the beans for 1h15. Taste one to make sure the beans are soft. Increase the heat to medium and add the ‘hard’ vegetables (carrots, turnip, celery, garlic) to the pot. Add the salt, stir well, and cover with the lid. Cook for 15 min. Stir in the ‘soft’ vegetables (zucchini, green beans, tomatoes, potato), cover with the lid and cook for 15 min. Stir in the pasta, cover and cook for 15 min, or as long as it takes for the pasta to be tender. Add the black pepper, and taste the soup. Add more salt or black pepper if necessary (be mindful that the pistou sauce will make the soup saltier). The soup should be fairly liquid, so if it’s thick, add a splash of water to thin it down.
- Serve. Stir the pistou sauce with a spoon to smoothen it. Remove the bay leaves from the soup. Ladle the soup into bowls. Serve with the pistou sauce on the side so that people can add pistou to their bowls (it’s part of the fun). It’s also common to have a bowl of grated parmesan or Swiss cheese on the side so that people can top their soup with more cheese.
Notes
You can keep pistou sauce for up to 1 week in the fridge. Make sure it is covered with olive oil to maintain its freshness.
Pistou soup freezes well; ladle any leftover cooled soup into a large freezer bag or an airtight container and freeze. It will last 3 months (or more but it’ll taste better eaten within 3 months). Heat the soup, covered, over low heat until piping hot. You might need to add some water to loosen the soup. Don’t forget to make more pistou sauce to serve with the leftover soup!
If you don’t have a food processor/blender: Traditionally, you would make your sauce using a mortar and a pestle instead of a food processor. First crush the peeled garlic cloves in a large mortar, then add the basil leaves and pound with a rotary movement. Add the cheese and keep pounding with the pestle. When it reaches a creamy consistency, slowly pour the olive oil and mix well. If your mortar is small, you might have to do it in batches.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 big bowl
- Calories: 420
Keywords: French soup, French summer recipes, mediterranean vegetable soup