Today alisonk came to lunch. She is doing a low carbohydrate regime, so I had to whip up some flour-free goodies. For a first course in place of pasta or risotto, we had a mushroom soup. I made the basic soup a day ago because most soups get better for sitting. When I reheated it I added the part that might not have refrigerated well.
As you can see, it is very dark and filled with mushrooms. The following recipe made soup for two.
No Carbohydrate Mushroom Soup
1 pound (.5 kilo) champignon or button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced. stems chopped
2 tablespoons butter
about .75 quart or liter of strong beef broth
salt to taste
heavy cream to taste
In a heavy pot I sautéed the mushrooms in the butter until they were quite browned and almost dried. Then I added the beef broth. I allowed this to cook and cook down several times, adding water to bring it up to level each time. Because I used “Better Than Bouillon” for the broth I added and needed no salt. When the whole thing was thoroughly infused, I poured it into a container and refrigerated it.
Today, a few minutes before I needed it, I warmed it up almost to a simmer and then added heavy cream, stirring it in, until it tasted balanced and rich. I ladled it into two deep bowl/cups and this is what happened. 
The verdict was “Good!”
For main course, or secondo, we ate Pollo fra Diavolo from this page.
With it we ate a cabbage dish from Puglia that I once had made into a pasta, but today served it as it was meant to be. Because there is no chance at bread, pasta or dessert, I changed the fat used from oil to duck fat, but it will be good without it if you are not as lucky as we are.
Cavolo Pugliese or Pugliese cabbage
This would have been enough for four people normally, but this was a slender menu indeed.
about 3 cups of slivered fresh cabbage
2 small hot red peppers peperoncini
about 2 tablespoons oil or fat
salt to taste
5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
Heat a big frying pan with the fat you will use. Crumble the pepper into it (or take a pinch from a jar of crushed red pepper.) Add the cabbage and toss it about a bit to get the fat distributed. Continue to cook it, stirring once in a while, until some of the edges start to brown and there are no really hard parts left. Add about 1/2 teaspoon or a decent sized pinch of salt, stir and taste. Add salt until it seems right to you. Toss in the tomato pieces and stir until they wilt a bit. Serve.
I had prepared a salad, but there was no room left for it. We had eaten well.
March 4th, 2008
No one will be more surprised than I was at how good this pasta turned out to be. I had read a Pugliese recipe for a contorno, or side dish, and 1) I didn’t need a side dish and 2) it had tomato paste in it, which I do not buy. Pugliesi, however, use the cherry tomato much more than I am used to anywhere else and they always keep them on their branches for a while to sweeten and strengthen them. I had a couple of branches I was experimenting with so I figured why not turn the recipe into pasta and why not use the saved-up cherry tomatoes instead of tomato paste?
I was expecting edible. I didn’t bother to write anything down or photograph the dish. I got super! But no recipe nor photo existed until two days ago.
The ingredients include (per person):
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon of terrific olive oil from Puglia or the best olive oil you know.
1/2 onion, chopped
a good sized, generous pinch of red pepper flakes or crushed red pepper (peperoncino)
1/4 small head of white (cavolo cappuccio) cabbage, cleaned, cored and sliced into the thinnest slivers you can do with a knife.
5 or 6 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
65 to 100 grams dry weight of penne or other hard wheat eggless pasta
salt to taste
more oil for dressing the finished dish
Start water to boil for the pasta. Heat a large frying pan that will hold the pasta as well as the sauce. Put the oil in the pan and the garlic slices, chopped onion and the red pepper flakes then sauté them until the garlic just turns blond. Add the cabbage and stir it in well. Salt all of it to help the sautéing process.
By now the pasta water should be boiling, so throw in some coarse salt and then the pasta. Stir it up once and let it boil to form some foam on top. Using a ladle, add about 1/2 cup of the foamy pasta water to the frying pan. Watch the sauce, it may need even more water later because it does seem to disappear fairly quickly. There should be a bit of juice in the bottom. Add the cherry tomatoes and stir in. They should very quickly combine with the juices and oil, and what is odd is that it seems to thicken a bit. Cook this about 8 minutes, not more. If your pasta has not reached really al dente by that time, turn off the heat, then re-ignite the flame when you add the pasta.
When the pasta is done but quite firm still, drain it and throw it into the frying pan. Cook and stir for a minute or two. Taste it for salt and correct if necessary. There should be a noticeable heat to it, but nothing like sinus-clearing, Thai or Indian heat, just a gentle peppery mouth sensation. Serve the pasta into a flat soup bowl and drizzle fresh, raw oil over it for the last nuttiness that suits so well the cabbage and peppers.
You may have to trust me on this one, because it doesn’t read gourmet, but if you’ve cooked my recipes before, what have you got to lose? Other than faith in me, that is.
So, I am going to submit this to Presto Pasta Nights at this blog. Let’s see how this unusual take on cabbage plays in the bigger world.
April 17th, 2007
As you can see, it is very dark and filled with mushrooms. The following recipe made soup for two.
The verdict was “Good!”
