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Baby, it's cold outside—just the right weather for hot soup with something warm and carb-y, fresh from the oven. In the spirit of the season, here's my pick for the perfect, stick-to-the-ribs (vegetarian!) wintertime meal from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's newest book, Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food: The Ultimate Weekend Cookbook.
Mushroom Soup and Pasta Bake
Here's my tribute to cream of mushroom soup. Nostalgia is a big part of comfort food, and almost everyone I've spoken to has that shared memory of tucking into a steaming bowl of this soup as a child, particularly when they were feeling poorly. I've taken it up a notch, while still giving you that old-school familiar flavor. It's a total beauty in its own right, but I've also shown you how to turn the soup into a pasta bake, which was fashionable in the '80s.
Serves 6
50 minutes
242 calories (soup)
388 calories (pasta bake)
Ingredients:
3/4 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1 onion
1 rib celery
2 lbs. button mushrooms
olive oil
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 good pinch dried chili flakes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 oz. Cheddar
Pasta Bake:
17 oz. dried penne
1 handful button mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
10 sprigs fresh thyme
In a small bowl, just cover the porcini with boiling water and leave to soak for 5 minutes. Peel the onion, trim the celery, and roughly chop both, then clean the button mushrooms and put it all into a large saucepan on medium-high heat with a good lug of oil, the butter, the chili flakes, and the flour. Scoop in the porcini, reserving the soaking water for later. Cook it all for around 25 minutes, or until soft, dark, and intense, stirring regularly.
Make up 6 cups of broth. Gradually add the hot broth to the pan, stirring continuously, along with 90 percent of the reserved porcini liquid. Bring back to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the cream and grate in the Cheddar, then blend until smooth. Season to perfection, and there you have it—mushroom soup for six!
PS: To turn the soup into a pasta bake for six, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cook the pasta in a saucepan of boiling salted water according to package instructions, until just al dente, then drain and return to the pan. Pour over half the soup (eat the rest or save for another day), gently mix together, then tip into a baking dish (8-by-12 inches) and top with an extra grating of Cheddar. To make it extra special, use a mandolin (use the guard!) to shave the mushrooms and garlic into a bowl, strip in the thyme leaves, then toss it all in a drizzle of oil and scatter over the pasta. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until golden and starting to crisp up at the edges. Yum.
Reprinted with permission from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food by Jamie Oliver. Copyright 2014 Jamie Oliver. Excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
