Here are a couple of meals perfect for the change of season: a sprightly, green soup to awaken the tastebuds and cheer in spring, and a slow-cooked veal ragu to serve over pasta, for a final taste of winter. And to eat alongside an episode of The Sopranos.
I dreamt up this soup in April after a long North American winter of starch, processed food and wizened root vegetables. On a day when the muddy snow had finally melted away and new buds were unfurling on bare branches, I spied some baby zucchini in the produce market. Tucked up in rows like newborns: tender little mites no longer than my fingers.
Never before had the arrival of spring seemed as exhilarating! I turned them into a lively green soup of fresh new vegies with a burst of lemon – new life in a bowl. The end result is a light broth made creamy from the addition of fresh ricotta cheese: rich and sweet and utterly delectable. Once you try it you'll never go back to the pre-packaged kind.
Any young, fresh spring greens will do; apart from the ones used here you could also try asparagus, sorrel, pea shoots and nettles. Leeks aside, the vegies should be barely cooked, retaining a bit of crunch.
It's also an incredibly quick dinner, especially if you use peas straight out of the freezer. I find it satisfying enough for a main meal, especially if you serve it with slices of sourdough to add ballast.
What about something for those rainy nights when spring loses its flimsy hold on September? How about the slow-cooked veal ragu I mentioned last week but cruelly didn't provide a recipe for.
The idea is to use the gloriously heady ragu rather economically (i.e.: very sparsely) with some good pasta, so that the sauce doesn't overwhelm the dish. It also makes it a lighter version of a heavier winter dish, suited for this time of year when our appetites are ebbing, without sacrificing any of the intense, earthy flavour.
Begin the ragu a good four hours before you intend to eat it, or do as I do: cook up a batch on a Sunday then, once cooled, divide into zip-lock freezer bags for future quick, yet hedonistic, wine-friendly dinners.
Spring soup
To serve two:
Butter
One leek
Six baby zucchini
Two good handfuls of peas, frozen or freshly podded
120 grams sugar snap peas
Four cups good chicken or vegetable stock*
One lemon
Handful of baby spinach leaves
150 grams fresh ricotta
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
Sourdough bread to serve
Melt butter in a soup pot while cleaning and slicing the white part of the leek into thin half-moons. Sweat them in the pot over medium heat with the lid on, so they soften but not brown.
Halve the zucchini length-ways, slice and add to the pot. Stir around and leave to soften for a couple of minutes, with lid on.
Zest the lemon into the pot. Squeeze the juice from one half into the soup, reserving the other half for later. Add the chicken stock and replace the lid.
Wash and trim the sugar snap peas and add to pot. With the lid on, cook on medium heat for three minutes. Then add a handful of peas, either fresh or frozen. Cook for another two minutes. The point is to treat the vegetables gently – you want to have a bit of crunch left in the snap peas, and you want the vegies to retain as much as the green colour as possible.
Squeeze the second half of the lemon into the soup, crack some pepper into the mix, and taste for seasoning.
Depending on the quality of stock used you may not need salt at all. Add some fresh chervil or tarragon if you like; I prefer not to add any fresh or dried herbs as I want the soup to taste of the young green vegetables and the freshness of lemon.
Divide the baby spinach leaves between bowls before ladling in the soup. Serve with a generous spoonful of fresh ricotta, and sliced sourdough (buttered, if you like) on the side.
* Instead of stock, which can be overly salty, you can substitute some pale miso for even better flavour and exceptional health-giving properties. Just be sure not to let it boil, or its wonderful enzymes will be destroyed. Cook the soup in water, then stir in some miso near the end of cooking after removing the pot from the heat.
Slow-cooked veal ragu over pasta
500 grams cubed veal or beef
Light olive oil
Two onions, finely chopped
Five cloves garlic, finely chopped
Two sticks celery, finely chopped
400ml hearty red wine
Four fresh bay leaves
Sachet of tomato paste
Two tins chopped tomatoes
24 oil-cured black olives
Generous handful of fresh basil leaves
To serve:
Pasta
Shaved parmesan or grana padano
Remove the meat from refrigerator half an hour before you want to start cooking. Crack some black pepper over a dinner plate and sprinkle with sea salt, lay the cubed meat over the top of it, then add some more pepper and salt over the top.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
In a large oven-safe casserole (enamelled cast-iron works beautifully), heat some olive oil over medium heat and brown the meat on all sides. Remove and set aside.
Add more oil if you need it, and cook the onions, garlic and celery gently until soft. Pour in the wine and tuck in the bay leaves, let simmer for a minute, then add the tomato paste and the tins of tomatoes. Return the meat to the casserole and bring to a boil.
Pit the black olives and add to the ragu. I end up cutting the olives into chunks to remove the pits as I don't have an olive pitter – so much the better.
Fill one of the tomato tins with water in case you need some extra liquid for the sauce (it also uses any remaining bits of tomato left behind). Give the ragu a good stir and add a bit of the tinned water if some of the meat isn't well covered. Place the lid on the casserole and set it in the oven.
Set the timer for three hours and – this is the fun part – savour the aroma as it fills the house. Partway through, get off the couch and check to see if the ragu needs any more water.
At the end of the cooking time, remove the casserole from the oven. I like to stab a fork around to break up any larger chunks of meat so it is dispersed throughout the ragu. Stir in the basil leaves at this stage – they'll wilt into the sauce but not lose their flavour.
Serve atop pasta (pappardelle, or any sturdy, dried pasta – I like the ones shaped like Barbie doll baguettes) with shaved parmesan or grana padano. Marry it with a bottle of sangiovese and you're in rustic Italian heaven.
(If making the ragu in advance, allow to fully cool before you decant it into zip-lock plastic bags for the freezer. This amount makes enough for three or four bags, each containing enough for two serves over pasta. If you prefer to overwhelm your pasta with this heavy sauce, you'll only get four serves out of this recipe.)
Asparagus with anchovy butter? Stuffed zucchini flowers? What are your favourite tastes of spring?
This post originally appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald.
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