Joan’s daughter Jessica won the giveaway book this year, Coming Home to Sicily by Fabrizia Lanza. One might call it nepotism; others might just call it a lucky draw…but lucky for us as well! Jessica’s Sicilian heritage kicked in and she completely devoured the book, picking several recipes to make, where else? In her mother’s kitchen. With a week of on-again, off-again rain projected for Santa Barbara, Lanza’s Kale and Potato Soup with Fresh Mint and Parsley sounded liked the perfect jumping off recipe. Armed with kale and mint from the farmer’s market and supplemented with additional kale and parsley from Joan’s garden, this recipe turned out to not only be easy and quick to make, but the perfect nourishing and comforting rainy-day soup. We added a good squeeze of lemon at the end, a trick we learned from Anna Thomas’ Love Soup. And we found a little Parmesan cheese just before serving worked nicely as well.
Stay tuned for some additional kitchen adventures from the Sicilians.
- 10 cups water (we used 8)
- 1½ pounds kale, preferably lacinato or Tuscan, chopped into 2-inch pieces
- 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 3 medium russet (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
- ½ cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
- ½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Lemon for squeezing, optional
- Parmesan cheese for topping, optional
- Bring the water to a boil in a large pot.
- Add the kale and salt and cook over medium high heat, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and cook until very tender, about 25 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the garlic, mint, parsley and oil.
- Cover and let stand for 5 minutes for the flavors to meld.
- If desired, discard the garlic clove before serving (good idea).
- Add optional squeeze of lemon before serving.
- If desired, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese before serving.