Rustic Lentil Soup
April 17, 2008 posted by Linda Avery
by Michael Ronis with Mary Goodbody
from Carmine’s Family Style Cookbook
(St. Martin’s Press, 2008)
Serves 4
This soup turns up most often on the menu at the 91st Street restaurant, where our regulars love it during the cold, icy months when New York is gray and damp. It’s a hearty and warming soup, made even more so with the addition of sausage, bacon, and pancetta — all of which can be tossed aside to make this soup ideal for vegetarians, with vegetable stock standing in for the chicken stock. This is a terrific Sunday night family meal, or even a delicious leftover weekday bite, with a good loaf of hot crusty bread slathered with butter.—Michael Ronis
convert Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 ounces diced pancetta
2 strips bacon, diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 small plum tomatoes, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
5 to 6 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups green lentils, rinsed and drained
1 russet potato, peeled and diced
1 to 2 Italian sweet or hot sausage links (about 5 ounces)
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Method
1. In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat until the butter starts to foam. Add the pancetta and bacon and cook them for about 7 minutes or until the bacon is crispy. Add the garlic and cook the mixture for about 2 minutes or until the garlic has softened. Add the carrots, celery, and onions and cook the mixture for 10 to 12 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned.
2. Strain the chopped tomatoes through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible.
3. Add 5 cups of the chicken stock to the pot and then stir in the strained tomato pulp, bay leaves, salt, thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Add the lentils, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring the soup to a boil.
4. Partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the soup for about 45 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes and cook the soup for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the lentils and potatoes are tender. Add more chicken stock if the soup becomes too thick.
6. Meanwhile, remove the casings from the sausage. In a small nonstick saute pan over high heat, cook the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, for 4 to 5 minutes or until it is nicely browned.
7. Add the sausage and any fat remaining in the pan to the soup. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste the soup and add salt if necessary. Remove the bay leaves and serve.
Recipe © 2008 Carmine’s Broadway Feast Corporation. All rights reserved.
© 2009 Leite’s Culinaria, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of use.
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[David Tomberlin] This soup has wonderful “rustic” textures and flavors. The seasonings were perfect—no extra salt or pepper needed. I love lentils in any form or fashion, so I was excited to find that this exceeded expectations. When I make this the next time, I’d tweak the preparation and addition of the tomatoes, but that would be to just simplify the preparation, not to change the outcome. It’d be hard to find a recipe that starts with bacon and pancetta fat that doesn’t come out a winner.
[Nil Taspinar] Very straightforward, albeit not a “quick and easy” recipe. It’s written perfectly, easy to follow, and the results were delicious. I’m not a big pork eater, and with three pork products here, I was a bit worried that it’d taste heavy, but that wasn’t the case. My only comment is that by using the hot Italian sausage on top of the red pepper flakes made for a “spicy” soup, but that was okay by me.
[Nancy A. Mosher] Upon reading this recipe again, I was delighted to see that a vegetarian version was offered, as I don’t eat pork. Vegetarian soups are often lacking in flavor, but this soup certainly didn’t disappoint. It was delicious! The choice to use green lentils made for a very nicely textured dish in which many of the lentils held their shape while just enough of them melted into a thick purée. The pieces of carrots and potatoes added to the chunky texture. As the recipe says, with a nice loaf of bread, this is dinner.
[Rachel Knox] This is a wonderful fall or winter soup. Really easy to make, and it’s tasty and robust. I think this is a great dish to have after being out in the cold. I topped it with chopped parsley and a bit of sea salt and served it with hearty rustic bread. It’s also a great way to clean out the fridge with leftover cured meats and vegetables.
[Kim Graham] This soup was fantastic! My husband doesn’t generally love anything made with lentils, but I think this soup converted him. After several bites he declared that I should definitely make it again. I agree. It wasn’t difficult or especially time consuming, just a great soup to have bubbling away on the stove for Sunday dinner. I used hot Italian sausage which gave the soup a nice spicy edge.
[Theodore Wanberg] As the author stated, the soup is a terrific for a cold blustery Sunday evening. We don’t have them here in Arizona, but the soup was still terrific. I don’t usually use fresh herbs in soups and stews, but I did here as I was following directions. Couldn’t tell if it made a difference, however. Even with using all five cups of stock, the soup was almost a stew, so I added another two cups. We’ll be enjoying this for the next several weeks.
[Susan Bingaman] This soup is seriously good, and it’s even better the day after. I like that it is a chop and drop kind of soup. It’s a snap to throw together—except for peeling tomatoes, a job I hate. I also like that it can be made to suit a vegetarian diet for those times when I want to serve the same dish to everyone.
[Emily Fleak] This is a great go-to soup for the winter. I made a huge pot of it and put the extra in small containers in the freezer to pull out later. It is a meal in itself.