Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup

I fell in love with adding Parmesan rinds to soup the Thanksgiving that my friend Orion made his minestrone for our group feast. It was a diversity of beans, slow-cooked all day until they were creamy with Parmesan rinds in the broth slowly breaking down as the day progressed. As a soup, it was almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in. As a memory, it is vivid. I asked him how he'd come up with that idea and he kind of shrugged and said something like "We're Italian, it's just what we do." It seemed so obvious to him, but to me it was a stroke of genius.

When I saw that Yotam had a soup calling for Parmesan rinds, I actually despaired a little at first. I'm on a fairly limited budget and cheese is an expensive luxury. I was lamenting this to my Aunt one night - who dug around in her freezer and came out with a bag of rinds she had been saving for some future use. Score!

The soup comes together pretty quickly, although I found I needed to play with it a bit to get the flavour I wanted. It was a little bland right off the start, so I added a bit more cheese and a bit of truffle salt - and then I realized I hadn't added the shredded, sautéed cabbage and chile mixture. Bingo. I'd make that garnish again just as a side - it was delicious. And it added a lot to the soup. Definitely plan on making it if you are going to put the soup together. It doesn't take much extra time and the results are very worthwhile.

As usual, the recipe is as outlined in the book, and the written description includes any of my own alterations and observations.

Savoy Cabbage and Parmesan Rind Soup
(p. 104, Plenty)

Serves 4

6 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp caraway seeds, plus extra to garnish
1 medium savoy cabbage
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
5 cups vegetable stock
3 oz Parmesan rinds, plus about 1/3 cup grated Parmesan (optional)
course sea salt
1/2 mild fresh red chile, seeded and thinly sliced

To begin, heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the sliced onion. Saute until the onions start to get soft without starting to turn golden, roughly 5 minutes. Add the garlic (I grated mine on the rasp grater) and caraway seeds and allow everything to cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove four outer leaves from the cabbage. Shred them finely and set them aside for later - they will become the garnish. You can shred more than the four leaves if you'd like - I think next time I'd double it. Shred the remaining cabbage roughly and add it to the onions in the pan. Stir to combine. Add the diced potato (smaller dice cooks faster) and continue to fry everything for another 2-3 minutes, stirring actively.

Add enough of the stock to barely cover the vegetables in the pan and bring everything to a boil. Add the Parmesan rinds, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for ~10 minutes, or until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork. Remove and discard the Parmesan rind at this point (or remove it, grate/dice it finely and add it back to the soup later... I did.). Add the grated Parmesan, if using. Stir to incorporate. Taste the soup and add salt to taste. I also added some white pepper at this stage.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow everything to cool down for a few minutes - you don't want to risk getting burned while you are pureeing the soup. If you have an immersion blender, use it to blend the soup right in the pot until you get a smooth consistency. If you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work, it will just take a few more batches. I used my food processor and it did a good job of getting everything silky, so that is another potential option. If you feel the soup is too thick after blending it, feel free to add more of the stock until you reach a consistency you like. If you add additional stock, you may need to add more salt and pepper, in which case, add and taste again until you get a balance you like.

Heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a a frying pan and saute the shredded cabbage you'd set aside earlier with the sliced chile and some salt (the course salt here is wonderful, as is truffle salt - go with it if you've got it). Ideally, the cabbage will just start to soften but still appear bright green when you take it off heat.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with the shredded cabbage and some caraway seeds, and possibly more Parmesan if you are feeling so inclined. Enjoy!

The soup didn't wow me as much as other recipes from Plenty have - but the shredded, pan-fried cabbage was unexpectedly delicious. I'd make it again on its own. The soup held well and reheated decently the next day. I opted to dice the Parmesan rind into tiny chunks and add it back to the soup rather than discard it and I feel that was a good life choice.