Sunday, February 3, 2008

White Bean, Tomato and Pasta Soup with Herbed Focaccia


It's been rainy and cold here, so I have been craving soup. Sometimes I use a recipe, but what I love about soup is how easy it is to improvise. For this soup I started out by sauteing some onion, celery, carrot, parsley, and garlic in olive oil. When the vegetables were soft I added a little red wine. Then I added vegetable stock, a large can of crushed tomatoes, and dried thyme and rosemary. We were trying to clean out the fridge, so a little spicy salsa went in as well; not in my original plans, but it worked nicely. I added some great northern beans that I had cooked earlier in the pressure cooker and let it all simmer for twenty minutes or so. Then I threw a few handfuls of rice pasta twists into the pot, and continued to simmer until the pasta was tender. I also added some fresh basil a minute before I took the soup off of the heat. A little sea salt and it was ready.


I also made herbed focaccia, and I was excited to find another use for my lavender here. I just added some in with the other dried herbs. I used thyme, rosemary, and the lavender. It tasted great, and really went well with the strong tomato flavor of the soup.



And finally, here's a picture of Nutmeg taste testing the fresh herbs. She was getting a bit cranky after several posts without any pictures of her. She kept looking at me like...hello! RABBIT food?!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum!!! Just the name of this dish makes me drool. It looks so delicious.

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

that soup sounds soooo good. and lavender in focaccia . . . Wow.
i'm glad to see nutmeg is back!

Jenny Wren said...

romina- Thanks, it WAS yummy!

lori- Nutmeg missed the spotlight. She's turning into a diva!

Anonymous said...

What a great improvisation! Love the ingredients and the color--and a gorgeous photo, too (the bowl is beautiful).

On a fools hope said...

um have you stopped cooking because this post has been up a while, how dare you have life outside of the computer! Soup looks divine by the way...

Cakespy said...

I love Nutmeg. I want a playdate with our guinea pigs and Nutmeg.

ley said...

Wow, Leftover Queen Jenn was right- you have GREAT blog! Yum!

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

That rabbit is just too cute!

I love the rabbit plate too, the soup looks extra gorgeous in it! Yummy soup!

LisaRene said...

Cute bunnie and beautiful dinnerware! Oh, the soup looks great as well :)

Stella said...

Aw, look at that Nutmeg! Thanks for that - made my day.