Free from Politics, Unapologetic Comfort Food:

Recipe for Homesick Fall Chicken Minestrone: 

Thank you so much for appreciating the soup.  It’s going to be a challenge to recreate, but I’ll try: 

Start with all your lovely young adults coming home for the weekend.  In anticipation of this, you allow yourself to buy perishables at Costco: berries, the giant container of yogurt, bagels.  The things that they complain they don’t get at college.  You crave a rotisserie chicken -- you’re hungry, it’s a good source of protein, and you can justify prepping it for your family when you’re all there (since you’re the only one who can conceptualize that there isn’t actually a boneless chicken breed). 

As long as you have all that chicken, you’ll likely make that buffalo chicken dip for Sunday football.  So, you get the cream cheese, the big bag of shredded cheese, and carrots and celery. 

Tear the meat from the chicken bones when you get home, scavenge your protein lunch.  Add bones to stock pot with pieces of onion, carrot, celery, etc. for chicken stock.  Add enough water to cover the above.  Doctor stock as per usual with bay leaf, peppercorns, and Better than Bouillon chicken base.   Let simmer for the afternoon, strain and set aside in the fridge. 

On Sunday, realize that you haven’t eaten at home as much as you thought you would, and panic about all the things you bought.   

Dice onion, celery, and carrot and saute in butter and olive oil in your favorite large, heavy soup pot with salt and pepper.  If you find other aspirational vegetables in the fridge (zucchini), dice them the same size and add now. Thinly slice or chop your preferred amount of garlic (in our family, usually 2-3 times what the recipe calls for), add when the vegetables are softened (about 10-15 minutes) and sauté until fragrant (about a minute).  Add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and some thyme (dried is fine, if you have fresh just toss in a couple sprigs and don’t forget to remove the stems later when you remove the bay leaf and parmesan rind).  Sauté another minute.   Deglaze pan with a bit of the wine that you’re drinking while you cook--usually red this time of year.  

Add some of the last of the season tomatoes, or about 4 of the ones from the CSA that you froze when things were too overwhelming in late August.   Peeled is nice, but not mandatory (the frozen ones slide from the peel so easily after a short microwave defrost).  Canned tomatoes are fine too—about 28-30 ounces (one large or two regular size cans). Top with about 4 cups or so of the chicken stock.  Simmer with a bay leaf or two while you drink wine with kids.   If you have stashed a parmesan rind in the freezer, toss that in too.   

Where did these little girls go?

Entice kids to make the buffalo dip, which they do because they miss cooking too.   

When you’re about 10-15 minutes from wanting to eat, add chopped rotisserie chicken and a drained and rinsed can of chickpeas.  Heat until these are hot, and serve with crackers, crusty bread, whatever is your jam.  And don’t forget the buffalo chicken dip with the celery and carrots and giant bag of tortilla chips that landed in your cart at Costco.  

Not traditional minestrone (no pasta, potato or greens, and chicken).   Our family isn’t traditional in many ways.   

Do what your family likes. 

Our well-loved, autographed copy.

  Inspired by several favorite cookbooks, including those by Marcella Hazan, Cook’s Illustrated, Featherstone Farms, Joy of Cooking, Mark Bittman—ultimately most closely resembles Antonio Cecconi’s Beef Minestrone, Betty Crocker’s Italian Cooking, (General Mills, MN).  Wiley Publishing, Hoboken, NJ.  2000.  pg. 66.

As ever, I am not compensated by Costco, Betty Crocker, Better than Bouillon, or any other brand mentioned.