Tuscan White Bean Soup with Swiss Chard

I had this for breakfast.

I even had to fight the cat for it.

These days I am immersed in the exploits of the Polar explorer/physicist/mathematician Otto Schmidt.

While forging a new trade route, his ship - the Chelyuskin got mired in ice and sank - stranding 100 passengers (including women and babies born on board) on an iceberg for three months. I bet he would have liked some of this soup. 

It is ten degrees out and the temps are only going down. The arctic air is here - Minnesota's meteorologists are thrilled - proclaiming the first polar air of the season. Minnesota's meteorologists are a decidedly odd bunch. 

The soup hails from Tuscany via Cooking Light. You don't need a blast of arctic air to enjoy it. This will warm the cockles of your heart. And come together in 30-40 minutes. What more do you want? Grab a pot and start cooking.

Tuscan Bean Soup with Swiss Chard - adapted from Cooking Light Magazine* (Serves 4)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow or white onion chopped
5 garlic cloves - minced
2 cups vegetable broth (for vegan or vegetarian) can use chicken broth
1 cup water
2 teaspoons chopped rosemary
2-15 ounce cans cannellini beans (rinsed)
1 1-2 ounce Parmesan rind (omit if Vegan - it adds substance but is also good without)
2 chopped carrots
1 bunch Swiss Chard - chopped
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt - optional - the rind adds salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
6 tablespoons freshly shaved Parmesan cheese for garnish (again, omit if vegan)

*Consider using kale or spinach. Cooking Light used escarole. Mix up the beans - the seasonings. Add or subtract onions. Use shallots instead or all garlic - consider the list of ingredients a guide.

Heat a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat. Add oil to pan and swirl to coat. Add onion and saute for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add broth, water, rosemary, beans, Parmesan rind and carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes - until the carrot is tender and all is winningly combined. Stir in Swiss Chard (or other greens) and simmer for ten more minutes. Stir in red pepper, salt (if using), black pepper and vinegar. Remove rind. Serve, with shaved Parmesan.

Keep away from cat.

It has color, varied textures and magical properties as all soups do. And you don't need to be stranded on an iceberg to enjoy it.

Venetian soup for a Venetian virus

My husband and my computer came down with a virus. I would love to say I was an attentive wife, spoon-feeding my husband cough syrup and soup but I paid far more attention to the computer. I have been MIA this week - no commenting, no writing and not a lot of smiling as I obsessed on playing Florence Nightingale to Harold - my geriatric computer.
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Harold may be outdated, but a lot of lovely plays were written on that computer and we have history. I can't save Harold but I know a lot about registry files.

I was going to tie in Marlena De Blasi's lovely A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance with my Venetian-inspired soup. You were going to be treated to sumptuous photos of Venice and that's when Harold started sputtering. I clicked on a "creative commons license" for a photo and sent a nasty Trojan into Harold's sytem.
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Four days later, I am about to "wipe him out." Yes, he will be in factory condition minus all the photos, music and words that have made him sing. I will be taking away his bells and whistles. I have been putting off doing this all day. In his advanced age of 7, Harold may have to retire.
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I did look up once in a while to spy my pathetic husband - chilled and rolled in a blanket. Not the usual for my strapping, flannel-wearing, North-country, Midwestern man. And made variations of soup. For my husband. Harold doesn't like liquids.
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This is a simple soup - loaded with fish and light and brothy. It's a caress. Perfect for humans with viruses. It has enough taste to satisfy and is light enough to soothe. Use any combination of dry white wine, clam juice, water or vegetable broth for the broth. I used white wine and clam juice.
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Venetian Soup Ingredients- 4 servings

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
• pinch or more of red pepper flakes
• 3 carrots, sliced thinly
• 2 cups white wine
• 8-16 ounces clam juice
• *If you need or like more broth, add 1 cup water, broth or more clam juice or wine
• 3/4 pound mild whitefish (I used tilapia)
• 3/4 pound small scallops
• 3/4 pound peeled, deveined shrimp
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• pinch of white pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley to garnish

Venetian Soup Preparation
In stockpot or Dutch oven, heat your olive oil. When hot, add your shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes and carrots. Saute 30-60 seconds just till softened a bit. Add your broth, wine, clam juice, etc. and boil 6-8 minutes to burn off some of the alcohol and soften the aromatics. Add your whitefish and scallops in chunks. About 2 minutes later add your shrimp. Sprinkle your white pepper and Italian seasoning and simmer untill the fish are cooked through. (The fish cooked in 5-7 minutes.) Sprinkle with parlsey and serve.
If this were truly Venetian, I'd have those wonderful tiny, tiny clams as an add-in. Alas and alack, Minnesota lakes do not provide.
Other ideas: Serve over pasta. make some rice on the side and add that in to the soup. Cook a diced potato with the carrots.
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Then read A Thousand Days in Venice - an unexpected, gutsy, honest journey back into love. The twist - the couple are middle-aged and there are bumps (he speaks little English and she speaks only "food Italian") and they will be living in his tiny apartment in Venice. Where De Blasi - a gifted cook - is dismayed to find that the local shops are happy to provide fresh bread and pastas and she is not expected to make all fresh. So says her husband. And in the course of the book, they slowly come to new agreements and carve out a life that is an unexpected as their romance.
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I intend to get back on the writing/commenting bandwagon soon - I have a hard time typing on the laptop (keys stick and I make a lot of errors) but Maude (laptop) is all I have right now and we will have to come to some agreements. We travel well together but I'm not sure how she feels about taking Harold's place. She has been getting dimmer and dimmer.

Eat. Live. Be, for a Better 2011
The theme this week are "what challenges are you finding?" So I had to laugh. the virus has been a challenge. The winter - for all has been a challenge, hasn't it? And regular exercise is a challenge. But at this point I have lost 1-2 pounds a week for ten weeks that keeps me going. That and my new-obsession - invest in a new pc or a Mac? Is Mac truly better at warding off viruses? Is it worth the investment? Is pc the better value? Any thoughts? When I told my "slowly-healing husband" the cost of a Mac - I think it released a new virus into his system.
And now I shall go upstairs and restore poor Harold to his original, old boring state. With a glass of wine.

Zuppa Confessions with Cake

I have a confession- that sunset posted on my entry last week - was not my yard. I would love Lake Superior to be in my backyard (maybe... but not necessarily during the Gales of November - Lake Superior is a lake you must respect).
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Paul and I are in agreement that if we did indeed have a lake to gaze upon from our window - we would do nothing but gaze upon said lake. In the a.m. we'd gaze with our morning coffee right until we switched to cocktails or wine in the evening and nothing would ever get done. So, we remain happy to have White Bear Lake three blocks away for when we need our "gaze-at-a-lake-fix."
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Below is my yard. Exactly as it looked this morning. We knew it was coming.

Sigh. If you live in the southern part of the country and post photos of your flowers from your yard, I may weep.


You can see why I needed to make soup. And not just any soup. The sort of soup that could go vegetarian - if you were in the mood. The sort of soup that could be waistline-happy brothy - if you were in that mood. Or just a tad creamy - which is not a bad alternative when the day is wintery and you want dinner to feel like a balm for the icy roads and chills.


There are so many variations to this Zuppa Toscana - I know because in my soup-questing life, I've tried them all. If you don't eat meat, omit the sausage and increase the onions, carrots and celery by a third. If you like your Tuscan bean soup brothy, leave out the evaporated milk. If you want more fat, use Italian sausage rather than turkey sausage in the soup. Substitute escarole or kale for the spinach. The important thing is to deliver a broth packed with flavor from aromatics (onions, carrots, celery and garlic) and herbs.



Zuppa Toscana Ingredients - serves 8 as a first course, 4 as an entrée
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onions (about one large onion)
1 cup chopped carrots (2-3 carrots)
1 cup chopped celery (2 celery stalks)
2-3 (or more) garlic cloves - minced
1 pound turkey sausage*
8 cups chicken broth
2 (or more) tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
2-14 oz cans cannellini beans, thoroughly rinsed (I used organic)**
1 bag baby spinach
1-14 oz can evaporated milk or evaporated skim milk (I used skim)

*Make your own turkey sausage: for each pound of ground turkey add: 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasonings (I use a lot of seasoning), 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Mix well with turkey, cover and refrigerate at least one hour or up to a day.)

**Substitute dried beans (1/2 pound approximately equals 2-14 oz cans. Simply soak over night as directed on the package. Your beans will be firmer.)

This was so soul-satisfying, I think I'm in love. Zuppa Toscano and I shall live happily together. And it doesn't interfere with my marriage at all.
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Zuppa Toscana Preparation
In large stockpot over medium heat, heat olive oil. (Hot but not sizzling.)
Add onions, carrots and celery and toss to coat with oil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook till all is softened - stirring occasionally (7-8 minutes).
Add garlic, stirring for 30 seconds.
Add turkey sausage and stir - breaking up clumps. Cook till turkey is browned (another 7-8 minutes).
Add broth, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Add beans and simmer uncovered for ten minutes.
If using, add evaporated milk and simmer for five minutes.
Add spinach and stir until just wilted - about two minutes.
Serve. Pass pepper mill around. If you did not use the evaporated milk, consider passing freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
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And then there was the cake. Someone in my home had a birthday. The day after I joined Weight Watchers. (It had to be.) And in the wonders of her new age, she had found a recipe in Cooking Light that she asked me to make.
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Chocolate Cake with Orange-Chocolate filling and Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze
(or in the spirit of this post - Chocolate Gaze)
How could I say no? And it was from Cooking Light....

It taunted me with it's lowfat lip. You know how some cakes are so pretty you proclaim, "It's a shame to cut into it." (But you do.) This richly dark cake proclaimed it was made to be eaten. It sang it. It heralded its edibility.

And we gobbled it. One my second day of Weight Watchers. I ate every moist, delicate crumb of my slice greedily.

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The cake soothed. The cake sated. Orange and chocolate - a little citrus, a depth of sweetness. For the rest of the evening, people sneaked down to the fridge in the basement to have a sliver.

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If you like dark chocolate spiked with orange and cake with a creamy-oozing layer topped with a glitzy glaze, find the recipe here. A word of advice - wherever it says "non-fat," substitute low-fat. Nobody else claimed to notice... but I could taste the non-fat. And deep inside I know - non-fat is not real food.