It's a wintry day in Dallas and for this, I like a hearty soup and loaves of fresh bread that can fill the air with warm aromas, promoting the senses that all is well. If you're facing high winds (as I know they are in Tennessee, according to the warnings for the Smoky Mountains region), a cold drizzling rain without the hint of snow or even a certain mistful feeling due to waning twilight, get out your big knife and get into a good roasted red pepper and eggplant soup. The one featured in Bon Appetit takes time and effort, but the results are a spoonful of something wonderful.
This soup is thick, it's loaded with veggies, it makes a goodly large batch to freeze or share with friends. It is a very charming soup - but do allow enough time to work your way through it. You'll be chopping eggplants, red bell peppers, leeks, onions, garlic and fresh herbs, but you'll feel thankful in the end.
There was real flour power in the Singing Wheat Kitchen today - I took dough from the Pain a l'Ancienne recipe featured in the "Bread Baker's Apprentice" book, made two baguettes and knocked back two balls of dough for the freezer (for future pizza dough) and set two more balls in the fridge to make foccacia tomorrow. What a wonderful, versatile bread dough for dividing and conquering. The baguettes turned out very rustic-looking but tasted marvelous, like French bread. They would be even more terrific if loaded with pepper and proscuitto. I must try this.
The bread recipe recommends using a plastic dough scraper, so I hauled my boots over to Sur La Table and nearly swooned with all the goodies they've got on their shelves for the holidays. If you're looking for Christmas ornaments shaped like wheels of cheese, an espresso machine or peas in a pod, this is the place. I had to force myself to focus on the scraper and look straight ahead, neither to the left or right. Have you seen the colors they're doing on immersion blenders these days?
You can work in a quick trip like that if you're allowing the dough to rise, but don't overdue it. Don't get lost in a Whole Foods aisle on the way home, browsing the chocolate like it's research.
Get back home and get the chopping done for the soup. Once those flavors are in the pot and filling the air, you can butter up your bread knowing that the soup's on, the day is done and good things will happen.
(Photo: Loafing around at Home Slice Bakery in Dubois, Wyoming. By John H. Ostdick)
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