Recipes

Cavolo Nero & Bacon Soup

Lindsey Bareham

There’s a background smack of chilli to wake up the taste buds in this otherwise gentle soup brimming with vegetables…

Cavolo Nero & Bacon Soup Recipe

Serves 2 | Preparation 15 minutes | Cook 15 minutes

There’s a background smack of chilli to wake up the taste buds in this otherwise gentle soup brimming with veg. Scraps of bacon contribute a surprising amount of richness while rosemary and bay give the stock cube broth a boost of flavour. Lindsey serves it with a separately poached egg and crusty bread and butter for supper.

Ingredients

100g lardons
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced thinly
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
generous sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely diced
1 dsp flour
1 ½ chicken stock cubes
750ml boiling water
150g cavolo nero, shredded (discarding any thick, dense stalk)
250g potato, cut into sugar lump size dice

Method

Cook the lardons in the olive oil in a spacious pan over a medium-low heat, cooking until the fat runs and crisps and the bacon very aromatic.
Stir the onion into the bacon, cooking gently so it wilts without browning, continuing until it looks like limp worms. About 15 minutes.
Stir in the garlic and rosemary leaves that you have chopped to dust (Lindsey recommends using a mezzaluna).
Stir the chilli into the onion and cook for a couple of minutes before you remove the pan from the heat.
Sift the flour over the top and stir vigorously until disappeared, then return to the heat with the stock cubes dissolved in 750ml boiling water.
Increase the heat and stir as the soup comes up to the boil and the flour thickens the broth.
Add the cavolo nero and potato to the soup and simmer, partially covered, for about 8 minutes until tender.

Season to taste and serve with a swirl of your best olive oil.

Further Information

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