Nothing beats the basic

After all the rich foods of the recent holidays, I like to get back to some basic meals. One of our favorites is a hearty soup with lots of vegetables and legumes.

The other day I decided to make just such a meal with some leftover chicken pieces, several slices of thick bacon, barley, mushrooms, carrots, onions, green beans and celery. I used canned chicken broth and a can of diced tomatoes, and added some elbow macaroni at almost the end of cooking time. This soup and a salad made a delicious meal.

Almost every country has its own ethnic soup recipes. I particularly like the variety of Italian soups — from the most delicate broth to thick minestrones.

There is an old saying in Italy that soup is a dish born of little money and much imagination.  For the Italians, soup represents the most basic of food preparation. It is “la cucina povera” (the poor kitchen).

All important pot

For many centuries the most important utensil of a peasant’s home was a pot suspended by a chain over the hearth. (This was also true in America in Colonial days.) Water was the magic ingredient that turned staples such as bread, grains, eggs, vegetables and herbs into countless soups. For hundreds of years, this simple peasant-based cooking existed side by side with the elaborate cuisine of the nobility.

In probably the oldest Italian cookbook “De Re Coquinaria,” written in 30 A.D. by Marco Apicio, there is a description of a Roman dish known as “polus.” It is based on the earliest grains and legumes, such as wheat, chickpeas and fava beans. This porridge-like soup was enriched with onion, garlic, lard and cabbage or other leafy greens. If circumstances permitted, scraps from the noble dining table were added.

No, no. Not soup!

However, this was certainly not a dish eaten by Apicio, a patrician, who, legend says, killed himself when he realized that his fortune had dwindled and that he had to relinquish his life of luxury.

During the Middle Ages, writings about medicine proclaimed that refined food was intended only for those of wealth and power, and that the poor should eat food more appropriate to their hard labor. Onions, cabbages and other vegetables taken from the soil were left to the peasants. Fruit plucked from the trees was better suited to the life of the aristocrats.

Giacomo Albini, a physician to some of the Italian nobility, not only predicted illness for those not eating food according to their social rank, but he specifically stated that the rich should avoid heavy soups.

The Italian word “zuppa” is probably derived from the Gothic “suppa,” which means “a slice of bread soaking.” This term also conjures up thoughts of medieval times when slices of bread functioned as plates,

soaking up the juices of meat and other foods placed on top.

When combined with garlic and cooked in water, these pieces of bread soaked in meat juice became the first soups. Not surprisingly, Italy’s earliest types of soups were known as “acquacotta” (cooked water) and “pancotto” (cooked bread).

These primitive soups were added to the peasant’s repertoire of boiled beans and grains. For centuries, these soups, along with polentas and porridges, remained the dietary staple of the common people.

It was not until after the discovery of America that Italian soups took on more variety. With the introduction of potatoes, corn, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, sweet peppers and kidney beans, soups such as minestrone began to make an appearance. Although the soups might have become enriched, the economic plight of the poor remained unchanged.

By the 19th century the transition from the dual cuisine of the rich and poor to a single popular cuisine had become well established in Italy. Perhaps not by chance, this progression to classless cooking coincided with the unification of Italy in 1861. Until that time Italy was a loose configuration of lands held together mostly by geography. Each region had and still has a rich variety of Italian soups.

One of my favorite Italian soups is L’Infarinata, a peasant soup from the mountains of Tuscany. It is a rich soup made with beans, vegetables and bacon, and then thickened with cornmeal. To save time I use canned beans in this soup instead of dried ones. Chunks of leftover ham may be added, if desired.

L’Infarinata

(Vegetable Soup with Polenta)

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 slices thick bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

1 sprig rosemary, chopped

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 bunch kale, about 10 leaves, cut in thin strips

1 small head green cabbage, cut in thin strips

1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 (14 ounce) cans light kidney beans

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

1 to 1½ cups yellow corn meal

Place the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the bacon pieces, onion, garlic, carrot, celery and rosemary. Saute, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the corn meal. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Add more chicken broth, if needed. The soup should be thin. Add salt and pepper if needed.Slowly add the cornmeal to the boiling soup, pouring it in a steady slow stream with one hand while stirring with the other, so that no lumps form. When the soup is thickened, cook slowly for 5 minutes. Laddle into soup bowls and serve. Serves 8.