We are quickly heading into the winter season and felt a hearty Italian soup might hit the spot. Many Italians choose to prepare soups for their family, especially for dinner, to keep everyone warm with a delicious tasty meal that can often be served as a so called “Piatto Unico” (one course meal) . Below you can find a recipe for a porcini mushroom and potato soup.
Ingredients
(enough to serve six people)
- 1.5 kg fresh porcini, carefully cleaned
- 2 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into even pieces
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 5 garlic cloves, peeled
- 100ml double cream
- 1 ciabatta loaf, cut into 6 slices at an angle for crostini
- Parsley
- Extra virgin olive oil
Simmer the potatoes in 11/2 times their volume of salted water until they begin to break up, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, separate the porcini caps from the stalks and roughly chop the stalks and 4 of the garlic cloves together. Add to the cooked potatoes and simmer together for 5 minutes. Using a potato masher or slotted spoon start to mash the potatoes into a pulp. Continue until potato and water have become a thick soup.
Slice across the porcini caps as finely as you can, then add to the soup. Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper. Stir together for 2-3 minutes, allowing the porcini slices to infuse their flavors into the rest of the soup, but retain a little texture, being barely cooked.
Toast the crostini and rub with the remaining halved clove of garlic. Put a crostino in each serving bowl and spoon in the soup. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle some chopped fresh parsley on top and serve.