Potholders, and Cookies, and Minestrone Soup

Small comforts.

The WIP potholders, still sans binding. But I bought some brown binding tape yesterday that will look nice, I just need to figure out how to sew it on. I have already tried, and resorted to the stich ripper outer once. There is some fabric from Leslie in Japan, and some from Nicolette in The Netherlands. They are my worldly potholders.

The cookies I baked in a fit of cookie-craving. They are Alton Brown’s The Chewy recipe, and if you like your chocolate chip cookies chewy, like I do, this is hands down the best recipe for them. EVER. If you like your chocolate chip cookies crisp or cakey, I can’t help you, because that’s just plain wrong. But Alton has recipes for those too. I like to freeze the finished cookies, then warm a few at a time in the toaster oven for fresh baked cookie taste. They last months in the freezer like this, if you can stand to not eat the whole lot of them all at once, and I actually find that doing this helps me to not eat them all at once with the excuse that they will just get old and hard, since I know they will last.

Chewy!

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Hardware:
Ice cream scooper (#20 disher, to be exact)
Parchment paper
Baking sheets
Mixer

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

The minestrone soup. This. This, my friends, was comfort in a bowl. This is a new comfort food in my collection of recipes, and one that I think will need to be made more often, joining the ranks of baked macaroni and cheese, tuna casserole, meatloaf, and many, many others. This fall, which isn’t really quite fall yet, was already fitting easily into Stefani’s season of soup, before she even decided to start it, so although I have other very favorite soup recipes that I have made countless times, other amazing soups that I have already made THIS MONTH, this minestrone is my most recent soup, my newest favorite soup, my soup for Stefani.

I adapted this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, and only in that I increased each ingredient between 70 to 100%, and used a combination of vegetable and chicken broth rather than beef. I even purchased a hunk of the real thing, Parmigiano Reggiano, for the first time in my life, and my goodness, it is wonderful. Eat a couple of hunks of the cheese straight away while you cook this soup.

The greatest thing about this soup is that it calls to puree some of the beans with some of the broth, which thickens the finished soup. So, rather than the lame, runny minestrone soups that I have tried and been unimpressed with in American restaurants many times over, this soup has a silky, rustic texture. Although it is not as good as the {best soup in the whole world ever} minestrone that we had in Florence at Trattoria Mossacce, it is by far the best minestrone that I have had on American soil, and it definitely reminds me of Tuscany, especially when enjoyed with a bottle of Chianti. And that makes me happy.

Winter Minestrone

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 ounces thinly sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound Swiss chard, stems trimmed, leaves coarsely chopped
1 russet potato, peeled, cubed
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained, rinsed
2 (14-ounce) cans low-sodium beef broth
1 ounce piece Parmesan cheese rind
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, pancetta, and garlic. Saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the Swiss chard and potato; saute for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and rosemary sprig. Simmer until the chard is wilted and the tomatoes break down, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, blend 3/4 cup of the beans with 1/4 cup of the broth in a processor until almost smooth. Add the pureed bean mixture, remaining broth, and Parmesan cheese rind to the vegetable mixture. Simmer until the potato pieces are tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Stir in the whole beans and parsley. Simmer until the beans are heated through and the soup is thick, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Discard Parmesan rind and rosemary sprig (the leaves will have fallen off of the stem.)

Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.