Today we dive headlong into the popular Italian cookbook, with a humble dish, loaded with carbohydrates, but without expensive ingredients, ideal for giving energy to workers.
Potato pasta soup is a common dish in southern Italy and there are all kinds of regional variations. This is the Napolés version, which is distinguished by an ingredient that is pure use cooking: the Parmesan cheese rind. This crust is the hardest part of the cheese, but it is still cheese, and in the stew, after being broken, it leaves an incredible flavor.
In Italy this recipe is made with the mixed pasta, a kind of short pasta ideal for soups, which part, actually, of crushing into small pieces the remains of pasta that did not give to make a complete dish: they were mixed and used to make dishes like this pasta and potato soup.
Today in Italy they sell packages of mixed pasta, but in Spain we will only find them in specialized stores, so it is best to do as the nonnas and mash the pasta asses that we sure have in the cupboard (that, or use a fideua or minestrone pasta, which makes us the same fix).
Before starting to cook this dish we must prepare all the vegetables. Finely chop the celery and onion, the carrot in mirepoix (small cubes) and the potato into irregular pieces in one bite. We must also finely chop a piece of bacon. We have used a Iberian bacon That is what the Italians do not have and we are sure that we even improve the dish.
Once the vegetables are cut, we put a splash of olive oil in a saucepan, add the bacon and let it heat over low heat for a few minutes. Then add the onion, celery and carrot and fry the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent. We then add the potato. We let it sauté for another five minutes, without stopping to stir. Then we add a branch of fresh rosemary and the cheese crust.
At this point, we cover the stew with water, Season with salt and pepper, cover the saucepan, and let the stew cook for half an hour, until the potato is almost done. Then add the pasta, a little more water and bring everything to a boil, making sure that the stew is not dry, but not watery either: it is a very dense soup.
When the pasta is ready, we correct the salt and we serve with a spoon.
With what to accompany the pasta with potato
It goes without saying that pasta with potato is a unique dish, well loaded with calories, that does not need any accompaniment other than an atrocious hunger. To drink, the recipe calls out for a Red wine. And for dessert, even if we are tempted to eat a tiramisu or a panna cotta, it is better to bet on the fruit, which is already well served.
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