i love soup

 

as the days get cooler and evenings get cozier, there is nothing better than a big pot of homemade soup. i love soup any time of the year, but there is something about fall soups that is especially comforting. we are members of a csa, and it is exciting to see what each week's box will bring - and thus what kind of soup we will be eating that week! a recent box brought us an acorn squash, and supplemented with a butternut squash from the local market, my talented husband came up with this scrumptious soup. i have attempted to capture his masterpiece in the following, very loose recipe:

roasted squash and garlic soup

preheat oven to 400-425

cut the top off a bulb of garlic, drizzle a little salt and oil on top and wrap in foil

cut each of the squash(es?) in half, scoop out the seeds, and dust with the following: salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg (pretty much whatever looks good in your spice cabinet - a mixture of the sweet and savory flavors of fall)

place garlic and squash in oven for about 20 - 30 minutes (until you can easily stick a fork in each)

towards the end of baking the garlic and squash, take a big pot and cook up a bunch of pancetta or bacon. render out the fat and cook until crispy. take out and set aside. when cooled, crumble it up. if cooking pancetta, you can leave the fat in the pot; if using bacon, you'll want to get rid of most of the fat.

in the same pot, saute one chopped onion with salt, as well as some celery and carrots (if you haven't noticed yet, hubby doesn't measure. just use what feels good to you.) add some thyme and a bay leaf.

when the squash is cooled off a bit, scoop out the insides and add to the onion mixture in the pot. open up the garlic - the bulbs will be soft and squishy, so scoop them out with a fork and add to the pot. pour in about 4 cups of stock (we use chicken). cook for awhile (maybe 20 minutes), adjusting the seasonings as needed. hubby likes to add sage towards the end.

puree (we use this nifty device to puree our soups). you can add a little cream to thicken and add body to the soup. garnish with some sage leaves and your crumbled pancetta or bacon.

we enjoy our soups with paninis. we recieved this panini grill as a wedding gift and it has been very well loved. the paninis in this picture are simply homemade crusty bread, soppressatta, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. oh, yum.

now i must run as tonight's white bean soup is about finished!