Chicken Noodle Soup
… without the soup

I was browsing the cooking section of my local Books Inc on Chestnut Street in San Francisco. I had a list of potential books on cooking, but none appealed to me at the time. I spied a copy of Mouth Wide Open by John Thorne and bought it without looking inside. I know John Thorne, not personally to be sure, but I have his books Outlaw Cook and A Serious Pig and I once received his Simple Cooking newsletter, a gift from son Eric. Sadly, I allowed the subscription to expire. I guess I’d rather read books… newsletters tend to get misplaced. And I’d rather read books about cooking than cookbooks.

John Thorne writes the way I write — except way better. He takes a subject and explores it and usually invents something to suit his whims. In Mouth Wide Open, he addresses subjects such as Cod and Potatoes, The Grist on Grits, Go Fry an Egg, Swedish Meatballs, and my current delight, Noodle Chicken… comfort food, but comfort food with wit, substance and personality. He cooks the way I cook when I do breakfast or lunch for myself… I’ve got this and that… I wonder how those would go together? And what else might go with them?

One doesn’t necessarily read his books from cover to cover, but by skipping around, seeking out what’s interesting, or landing on a subject you know nothing about. I came upon his Two With the Flu chapter… what’s that about… probably chicken soup. I was right, but he took an entirely new approach. Regular chicken soup is a time tested method handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter or son: poach a chicken in a pot of water, pick off the meat and put back in the (now) broth, add carrots and celery and sometimes potatoes and noodles. There, chicken soup.

Tom Colicchio in the Stock Making chapter of his book, Think Like a Chef, has a twist where he puts his chicken in water, brings it to a boil and then pours off the water and starts over. “Pouring off the original water after the first boil will remove all of the blood and a lot of the coagulated protiens, which form a gray scum on the surface. Don’t worry that you’re throwing out flavor, you’re not. The bones need to cook a good deal longer to extract flavor.” His method — I call it “the Colicchio method” (duh!) — works well and I get a nice clear broth without scumming. I hate scumming, it’s never ending.

John Thorne takes an entirely different approach. He cooks his meat in a Ziplock plastic bag at relatively low temperature for a long time. Sort of a poor man’s sous-vide. “The method … has three unique advantages: (1) The meat’s juices and flavor are neither diluted nor lost during the cooking process; (2) the scum produced in the cooking clings to the side of the bag, eliminating the need for skimming; and (3) the meat can be cooked in a small amount of liquid with no worry that it will overcook or dry out.”

Bingo. I’m hooked. I have to do this. Continue reading →

Pappa al Pomodoro

Marlena Spieler is one of my favorite food writers. Her stories and recipes appear in the SF Chronicle from time to time. Her recipes are always imaginative, reliable and not dumbed down. Her stories are entertaining, often coming from Europe, most often from Italy.

Since it’s tomato season and I was working on my third flat of tomatoes – this one Early Girls – I dug into my “to cook” files and pulled out this story that I clipped two years ago, but hadn’t got around to trying. She spun a yarn of the bakers of Napoli, their fabulous breads and tomatoes.

“Slice up a tomato or two, lay them on a slab of sourdough bread, douse with olive oil and various aromatics. This is lunch to get you through a summer, or to take to picnics, to eat alone, or to prepare for 100.”

Being a soup guy, rather than a sandwich guy, I was more interested in her simple bread and tomato soup creation.

“I’ve also been making pappa pomodoro, a savory tomato soup thickened with chunks of flavorful, stale bread that one can actually prepare with canned tomatoes and it’s surprisingly good. But you can’t prepare it with bad bread; you’ve got to have the good stuff.”

Well, I had my good Early Girl tomatoes from Mariquita Farm and good Acme bread, herbs and plenty of garlic… all set.

Since I had great tomatoes, I used 4 cups of tomatoes rather than add the juice. I had some tomato water as well, so I used a cup of that and 3 cups chicken stock. Rather than the ubiquitous basil, I used arugula – I like its spice – to finish the soup.

Other tomato bread soups I’ve made are thick and rich – not a bad thing – but this is tasty and light, thanks to the added broth.

Another reason to like this soup is that the tomatoes are not processed, neither before nor after cooking. The texture of the tomatoes is a perfect accompaniment to the bread chunks. And yet the soup is so light and flavorful, its good anytime: as a soup course at dinner, or as a lunch – maybe with some cooked shrimp thrown in. The last cup, I had for breakfast, heated and poured over good buttered toast. Yum, yum and yum.

Here’s Marlena Spieler’s recipe with my [notes]:

Pappa al Pomodoro with Basil or Arugula

1 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced + 2 whole cloves garlic
3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + more for drizzling
About 3 cups chopped fresh ripe flavorful tomatoes [just under 3 pounds = 4 cups]
1 cup dry white wine (or substitute water)
1 quart vegetable or chicken broth [used 1C tomato water, 3C chicken stock]
6 to 8 slices (about 1/2 loaf) sour country-style
bread, cut into bite-size chunks
1 cup tomato juice; if your tomatoes are amazing, omit and add another cup of tomatoes
Sea salt
Chopped fresh basil or arugula [1C arugula]

Instructions: Lightly saute the onion and sliced garlic in the 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil until softened, then add the tomatoes [be patient, cook onions until caramelized, otherwise the onions are crunchy]. Raise the heat to medium or medium-high, letting the tomatoes cook into a saucelike consistency.

Pour in the wine and raise the heat to high, letting the alcohol burn off and the liquid reduce, then lower heat again and add the broth and bread. Bring to simmer and ook over a low heat for a few minutes while the bread falls apart and thickens the soup. Add the tomato juice (if using).

Meanwhile, crush the whole cloves of garlic with a pinch of sea salt using either a mortar and pestle or a knife on a cutting board. [Add 2t salt plus ground pepper.]

Just before serving, stir the crushed garlic into the soup, and add the basil or arugula, then ladle the soup into bowls, with a drizzle of olive oil.