Delicious and Easy to Make Soup

Brodettu di Verdura cu Patati e Ovu

Unbeknownst to me, until later in my life, my dad played a very important factor in the shaping of who I am today. He always encouraged the creative side in me. No matter what I created he would praise me and tell me what a great job I had done. Wether it was cooking or painting or dancing, he always made me feel I was good at my endeavors.

In the early 70?s before my teenage years I was already cooking and inventing dishes.

My parents used to have a small office supply store in the building next door to our apartment, right across a high school. During the summer I was home from boarding school and sometimes my mom would take over the store if my dad was on the road buying supplies or visiting clients. When my mom was busy with the store, I sometimes would cook the family lunch or dinner, because no matter where my father was that day, he most always came to have his meals, with the family.

For my age I was pretty adventurous and creative when it came to eating and cooking.

I had this need to create without the hang ups an older person may have.

My dad would come home from his short trips, always with some goodie. Sometimes it would be chocolates or some great pastry, sometimes a whole leg of Prosciutto di Parma. One time he brought home a huge can of hotdogs, commercial size.  None in my family liked them or ate them. This was the first time I had seen what we called Wurstels, which is a Swedish, Austrian or German product that corresponds to a hotdog. Because I was adventurous when it came to eating, I was glad to try them, and no sooner I tasted the first one, I came to love these little sausages, I was actually happy that my family didn?t like them because I ate the whole 5 kg can by myself. Of course not in one sitting, but over a period of time. I ate them just as they came not accompanied by anything, we were not familiar with sauerkraut, nor ketchup or mustard, nor even the hotdog bun. We did not even know they existed. A Wurstel was foreign to us, as foreign as all the other trimmings that went with it. When I finished the can I never saw them again until I moved to the USA.

In any case quantities of great stuff would come into the house. He would pick up crates of fruits like persimmons or strawberries or any other fruit that was hard to get or expensive to buy and bring them home for us to stuff ourselves with, until we had had enough. Cheeses, fish, vegetables, or whatever else, but it was always a surprise, always something good, except for the hotdogs that only I enjoyed.

Sometimes as I mentioned earlier I would cook for the family and surprise my dad with my creations and when I did, my dad would rave at how good it was. How delicious I had made the dish, even when I  was sure I had made a mess of a dish. he never discouraged me once.

On one occasion he brought home large amounts of baby spinach that a friend had picked in the fields. That night I made a simple, healthy dish, unpretentious, not fussy at all. Full of color and delicate flavor. Of course my father loved it, and the amazing thing was that he would praise me in front of my parents? friends. He would describe what I had cooked and people would ask me for recipes, even at a young age.

At that time I didn?t fully appreciate that he was cultivating in me a love for food and because of it I would enjoy a lifetime of cooking. But it certainly teaches us a lesson that we have heard over and over again, if we want our children to succeed in something, make the correct circumstances available to them, praise them and encourage them. When I married my husband, he did the same thing to me my dad had done, praise me and rave about my food in front of friends. A large part of the credit goes to them for being so convincing in telling others how great my food was. And I?m grateful because they convinced me to keep trying and to keep creating. I cannot thank my father personally today, as he passed on before I realized what he had done, but I thank my husband daily for being so supportive and being my number one fan.

Thanks Dad and thanks Carlos!

My Dad

Servings 4

Ingredients

4 medium red potatoes

4 egg (optional, you may keep this dish strictly vegetarian)

salt to taste

2 medium onions cut in rounds

4 large cloves garlic

4 plum tomatoes cut in cubes

1/2 lb spinach*

pepper optional and to taste

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

Boil potatoes whole, when tender peel and cut into 1 inch thick rounds

Bring about 3 cups of water with salt to a boil

Add spinach and cook about 5 minutes, drain and set aside, reserving the liquid.

In a frying pan add the Olive oil, the garlic and onions and cook for 2 minutes then add the tomatoes, salt to taste and cook another 3-4 minutes on medium heat.

In the reserved liquid poach the 4 eggs, when ready place on 4 individual soup dishes. keep reserving the liquid.

(this step is optional if you want a strictly vegetarian dish)

Now divide the potatoes equally among the 4 dishes and the spinach also

Add a little of the reserved liquid to each dish, so as to form a soupy environment.

Spoon the tomatoes with the garlic and onion over the dish

Sprinkle with pepper if you like and salt.

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With Collard Greens, Cannellini Beans

Above is the same soup with different veggies. This one is made with collard greens and cannellini beans. *This soup is versatile and you may substitute different vegetables in it. Broccoli rape, string beans, zucchini, white beans, swiss chard, etc… the options are endless, just about anything you like will work. What makes this dish interesting is that each ingredient is separate which gives the dish a palette of fresh bright colors. Appeal to the eye is a trick that cannot be underestimated.

Serving Suggestions

I served this dish with fried bread and put a few slices directly in each dish

Directions for Fried Bread with Parmesan

To fry bread, slice a nice crusty Italian bread into 1/2 inch slices.

Fry in Olive oil for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until golden, with crusty brown sides.

Sprinkle with a little parmesan and place on paper towel to absorb the oil.

Serve directly on the side of the dish