Vicki Edgson's Blog

Tomato & bean soup with goat’s cheese panatellas & pesto

This great meal-in-a-bowl soup can be eaten without the goat’s cheese and basil panatellas if you want a simple supper, but they do complete the dish beautifully if you are entertaining. The pesto is essential for the Italian approach and can be made in larger batches and used with other recipes.

Serves 4

150g borlotti beans, soaked overnight in water with lemon juice

knob of clarified butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

1 small leek, roughly chopped

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove, sliced

few oregano sprigs, leaves stripped from stalks

pinch of salt

300ml strained passata

300g canned tomatoes

50g sun-dried tomatoes, soaked overnight

750ml Chicken Broth (see below)

For the goat’s cheese & basil panatellas:

80g semi-soft goat’s cheese

4 slices Parma ham

4 large basil leaves

1 tsp clarified butter

For the pesto:

50g basil leaves

1 small garlic clove, peeled

80ml extra virgin olive oil

30g toasted pine nuts 

salt and ground black pepper

30g grated Parmesan

For the vegetable garnish:

1 courgette, cut into 1cm dice

1 carrot, cut into 1cm dice

2 celery sticks, cut into 1cm dice

small piece of clarified butter

Drain the soaked borlotti beans and cook in a pan of boiling unsalted water for 30 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Make the pesto (in advance, if wished) by pounding all the ingredients in a pestle and mortar until smooth. Cover and leave in a cool place.

To make the soup, melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion, celery, leek and carrot until golden brown. Add the garlic, oregano and salt. Cook for a further 2 minutes, then add all the remaining ingredients. Simmer gently for 15 minutes over a low heat. Remove from the heat and add half the cooked beans, reserving the rest for the garnish, and blitz in a jug blender.

To make the panatellas, split the cheese into 4 equal chunks. Using your hands, roll them into 5cm long cigar shapes. Lay the Parma ham on a chopping board and place a basil leaf on each slice together with a ‘cigar’ of goat’s cheese. Roll up in the ham and saute in the butter just before serving.

Just before serving, saute the vegetable garnish and reserved borlotti beans in a pan over a medium heat until light brown.

Serve the soup warm over the vegetable garnish, with a good dollop of pesto and the panatellas on the side.

PROTEIN-RICH FASTING BROTHS

This broth can be enjoyed as a soup or used as stock in other dishes throughout this book. You can make it in advance and freeze it, if wished, or you can make double or triple the quantity and then freeze for later use. To intensify the flavour, it can be reduced by one-third before adding the garnish at the end. 

All meat stocks prepared in restaurant kitchens start with the carcass being roasted in the oven before simmering for several hours to extract the very best from the bones and marrow. The minerals that go into making up the bones are released and the resulting reduced stock is bursting with flavour and very nutrient-dense. These two fasting broths are really easy to prepare and have a complex yet delicious flavour. Enjoy these broths when you are intermittent-fasting or limiting your food intake. Both broths form the basis of many soups in the recipe section, so it is a good idea to make large amounts and batch freeze them. Never throw away a chicken carcass and buy beef bones from your butcher.

Serves 4

1.5kg chicken bones

4 celery sticks

4 carrots

2 onions

5 garlic cloves

15g coriander seeds

2 star anise

15g fennel seeds

1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns

3 bay leaves

bunch of thyme

100g raw minced chicken

2 egg whites

For the vegetable garnish:

2 spring onions, sliced

2.5cm fresh root ginger, peeled

and cut into fine strips

thin strips of carrot

1 tsp Tamari

juice of . lime

pinch of chilli flakes

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6.

Cut the chicken bones into small pieces. Cut the celery, carrots, onion and garlic into rough dice – approximately 2cm. Mix the vegetables and chicken bones with the coriander seeds, star anise, fennel seeds and Szechuan peppercorns. Place them in a roasting pan and roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Using tongs, put the roasted vegetables, chicken bones and spices into a large saucepan. Cover with 4 litres cold water and then remove any visible fat from the surface of the liquid with a small spoon.

Add the bay leaves and thyme. Mix the minced chicken with the egg whites and put into the pan. 

Simmer very gently for at least 4 hours until reduced and well flavoured. Allow to cool and then refrigerate the broth. Strain to discard the vegetables and bones, etc.

Pour a little of the cooled broth into a 1cm deep ramekin and leave to set in the fridge to a jelly. 

Remove when set and cut into dice to use as part of the garnish.

Just before serving, reheat the broth and serve in bowls garnished with the chopped jelly, spring onions, ginger and carrot strips. Add the Tamari, a dash of lime juice and a few chilli flakes.