Chicken broth with pasta & beans
Mixed pasta, fresh chicken stock, and a load of veg and beans?
I rather think so.
For someone who makes quite so much chicken stock, I don’t make chicken soup that often, and that’s a pity because it’s, you know, good.
Chicken soup has earned its place in the almost universal ranking of comfort foods by being gentle but tasty, and - especially if you make it from scratch - having that warm hearthstone mood of something simmering for hours in a kitchen that feels like home.
Now in my case that home is a small urban flat and when I make stock the whole place smells of chicken for a day and half, but I’m calling that less a bug than a feature. Chicken soup is a nice time.
You know what else is a nice time? Double-carbing it.
So fuck it, it’s winter - let’s pack out some soup with pasta, potatoes, and beans.
Ingredients:
Potatoes, 2 medium (floury or all-rounders, about 300g)
Borlotti beans, 1 tin
Onions, 1
Carrots, 1
Celery, 2 sticks
Pasta, 300g (pasta mista - see note)
Sausages, 300g (see note)
Garlic, 3-4 cloves
Fennel seeds, 1/4tsp
Parsley, 1/2tsp (dried)
Chicken stock, about 1 litre of the good stuff
Serves 4-6 depending on how much you reduce it and how brave you’re feeling.
You can also throw in a leek if you’ve one to hand, or some spring onions. It’s not exact.
Pasta - “pasta mista” is basically the jumbled leftover bag ends and oddments of the pasta you have to hand. I let these scraggly handfuls collect in a jar for just this kind of recipe, so this one was a blend of orzo, orecchiette, lasagne shards, and rigatoni. If you’re neither a massive ponce nor a grizzled nonna, use macaroni or something small, and handful of orzo to thicken won’t hurt.
Sausages - I use supermarket Lincolnshires for this kind of thing where you’re going to add a bunch of other flavours. They’re cheap and the texture works. Honestly, you’re going to cover them in fennel seeds and garlic, you don’t gotta go fancy.
Instructions:
Roughly dice the potatoes (scrubbed, skin on), onions, celery, and carrots - 1cm or smaller should do.
Drain and rinse the beans. Slice the garlic, and take the sausage meat out of the skins.
In a large, lidded, and preferably heavy pan, set the veg frying at a medium heat in some olive oil for 10-15 minutes, stirring periodically, until it softens, and colours a little.
Add the stock, parsley, and a bit more water (100ml?) bring it to a simmer, put the lid on, and let it cook for half an hour or so.
While that cooks, fry off the sausage meat. Again, at a medium heat. Put it in the pan in little dollops, and break it up with a spoon so it doesn’t clump together. We’re looking for the consistency of tiny meatballs or very chunky mince. Fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes, then add the fennel seeds and garlic, and cook for another 10-15 minutes at a slightly lower heat until there’s plenty of browning and the garlic has gone a bit sticky.
Take it off the heat and put to one side.
Raise the heat on the soup to a bit more of a boil, remove the lid, and add the beans and pasta. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to let it reduce a bit, and let the potato break down and thicken it.
Add the sausage and garlic mix, stir, and simmer for another 5-10 minutes to finish, depending on how thick you fancy it. You may even wish to let it down - you’ve got potatoes, pasta, and beans contributing to a rich thick texture.
Serve with grated parmesan and a lot of black pepper.
I do not, however, recommend serving this with bread. But you do you.
Next time, I’m considering simmering a parmesan rind or two in there, to really punch it up.
Want fresh chicken stock?
Cooking with a lot of chicken thighs means I tend to have bones and trimmings for stock quite often. Don’t tell anyone, but I also use the remains if we get a big bucket of fried chicken. This was made with two of the ~500ml bags I tend to have in the freezer. You can also just buy the stock. It’s fine.
Stock cubes? They have their place, but I’m not wholly sure it’s here.
If you want to make your own stock just for this, I’d grab something cheap like a pack of wings (a kilo is about two quid at many supermarkets) and put them in a pan with some chunks of carrot, leek and/or onion, a little celery, about 2 litres of water, and a bay leaf.
Bring it to the boil, and skim off the disconcerting grey foam, then let it simmer on low, covered, for about 45 mins.
Now decide if you want to rescue the chicken. You can add some body to the soup by fishing out the wings, letting them cool, picking off the meat, and throwing the bones, skin, cartilage, and what have you back into the stock pot. You could also keep the meat for something else. But it’s a faff, and I’ll totally understand if you can’t quite be arsed.
Either way, give the whole thing another two hours on a low simmer, removing the lid for the last half hour or so to let it reduce. I’ll often reduce by half for freezing, or just intensity.
Let it cool a bit, strain it, and quite probably let it settle so you can skim off some of the fat.
Should be pretty decent.