Asparagus soup

Though I am not much into soups, I do enjoy an occasional bowl — or should I say test tube? — of some good hot soup on a cold bad day. The other day, I had a very interesting soup cooked with cauliflower that was presented to me in a small test tube. The two mouthfuls that the tube contained warmed me up and I thought that I could happily deal with soups on another cold day.

I did just that one afternoon at The Imperial in New Delhi. My old friend there — Surender Thakur — had been urging me to visit the hotel for quite a while. When I finally went there, the worst of the chill was behind us, but the wind was still cold enough to make you want to warm yourself with some steaming soup. Thakur, who is director, food and beverage, promised me some hot Italian soups, and it turned out to be quite an enjoyable afternoon.

San Gimignano, the Italian restaurant at The Imperial, used to be quite a favourite of mine at some point of time. I went back there after a long time and found that some changes had been introduced. New dishes have been added to the menu, and the restaurant has quite an interesting wine list today. I ate a remarkable cod — lightly grilled — and tasted the different kinds of soups that were on offer.

What caught my fancy in particular was a soup prepared with different kinds of seafood. Bits of sole, sea bass, red snapper, mussels, prawns and squid had been cooked with garlic, leeks, onions and flavoured with fennel, dill and parsley. The outcome was mouthwatering.

Mixed seafood soup

Soups come with all kinds of flavours in Italy, depending on where you are. Most of Italy — barring the north — is surrounded by the sea, so seafood figures prominently in soups. Then, pastas are often dunked into soups to make the broth hearty enough for a meal. A soup, in fact, is often a meal in itself. The stracciatella, for instance, is a thick soup in which eggs are beaten in with Parmesan, and then dunked into the hot broth. The cheese dipped in egg forms a tiny rag-like shape, which accounts for the name. Stracciatelle means little rags.

Then, of course, there are minestrones. If you take a big helping of minestrone — cooked in different ways across Europe — you don’t really need to eat anything else. The word means a big soup, and I can understand why, for it can have almost anything in it. My portion, for instance, included celery, carrots, zucchini, turnip, onions, leeks, garlic, mushroom, white beans and French beans. Often, minestrones have pasta or even risotto in the broth. This one had been flavoured with rosemary and thickened with Parmesan.

The great thing about an Italian soup, I think, is the delicious cheese that goes into it. The cheese doesn’t just add its own taste to the broth, but thickens it too, giving it a nice and hearty kick. Then, because there are so many kinds of pastas, a soup can be pepped up with little pasta shapes or even stuffed ravioli.

The Italians love their veggies too, which is one reason why it’s one of the most popular cuisines in India. I had a sumptuous asparagus soup which had been cooked in a vegetable broth mixed with an asparagus broth. It had all kinds of crunchy vegetables in it — from carrots and radish to asparagus and beans. And of course it included Italian and Indian mushrooms.

Minestrone

Soups, I am told, are good for the soul, but I can vouch they are good for the body as well. A friend turned into a stick figure from the little hillock that he used to be by just focusing on soups and salads for several months. I thought of saying this to former Indian cricket captain and now member of Parliament Mohammed Azharuddin when he joined us at our table, looking rather natty in his Armani. He said he’d lost 9 kilos of weight, and I realised how when I saw him nibbling on pieces of kiwi fruit and papaya. A hearty but light soup, I think, would have helped him shed weight, while not tormenting his taste buds.

Of course, there are soups and there are soups. You can have a thick and rich soup — like the Italian wedding soup or the minestra maritata — and gorge on all that it contains: beef, chicken, ham, bacon and ham rinds (and never lose weight). Or, if you are like my friend, you can try out different kinds of light Italian soups and shed weight with every delicious morsel. I just hope Azharuddin is listening.

Photographs by Jagan Negi

Zuppe crema di Parmigiano col olio di tartufo
(10 portions)

Ingredients

• 5 peeled and chopped shallots • 25g peeled garlic • 50g Arborio rice • 125g salted butter • 165ml white wine • 165ml vermouth • 625ml cream • 150g freshly grated Parmesan cheese • 10ml truffle oil • salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the butter and sauté the shallots, garlic and rice in it till transparent. Add the stock, wine and vermouth. Bring to a boil and then simmer till it reduces to half. Add the cream. Simmer and reduce till the consistency is velvety. Add the grated cheese and season. Once the cheese melts completely, pass through a chinoise sieve. Pour into pre-warmed bowls. Drizzle with a little truffle oil and serve.