A Kind of Soupe au Pistou

Yesterday I was craving for a Soupe au Pistou, a typical dish from Provence in France (originally from Genoa in Italy). So I searched for the recipe on internet. I was confronted to a problem: I found many recipes. Which one should be the authentic one?... For such classical dish I though there would be a one and only recipe.
So, as often, I decided to improvise mixing Le Reboul's one and another random I found.
Le Reboul is the commun name for the cookbook La Cuisinière Provençale, written by the chef Jean-Baptiste Reboul, edited in 1897. It assembles 1120 recipes and 365 menus.

Another thing: this soup is a summer dish.
All ingredients should be fresh... hum hum...

For 6 persons

• 150 gr white beans (from can)
• 150 gr green beans (frozen)
• 3 potatoes
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 150 gr of small farfalle pasta
• 20 gr of parmesan cheese
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• a big amount of basil's leaves (almost a whole pot)

Cut the potatoes, tomatoes in small squares.
Slice the onion and heat it in 6 tablespoons of olive oil, make it goldy ;) in the cooker - medium hot.
Add the potatoes and the white and green beans in the pan. Mix and let it heat a bit.

Then add the tomatoes and cover the whole vegetables with water. Salt and pepper as you like.
Let it on the heat at medium temperature for 45 min at least.

Check regularly the level of water. It should be always a bit more liquid that solid.

Add the pastas and let it cook for 20 min minimum.

The pistou:
slice the basil with the garlic.
In a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of the soup and the sliced vegetables.
Here you should add the amount of parmesan you like.
Grind it all - it's like the pesto.

Final touch: add you pistou and cook for another 10 min.
Ready to serve with extra parmesan topping if you like.

You can get La Cuisinière Provençale from Tacussel Editions (French):
http://www.tacussel.fr/tac/reboul.htm


By Mrs T