Actually, I used the bones left over from Tom Turkey, who was an organic delite this year, so this recipe should really be called Turkey soup for the sick. I ate a lot of this soup and although I couldn't smell or taste it, I felt better after eating it.
Chicken or turkey carcass (with some meat left)
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 leek
1 small onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 parsnip
1 turnip
A handful of parsley
Put the carcass in a pot with enough water to cover. Chop the veggies into small pieces and add them to the pot. Season with some salt and pepper and set it on a medium flame. After the mixture comes to a boil lower the flame and put a lid half on.
After about an hour or so take the carcass out, let it cool, and once cool strip the meat and chop it up into small pieces.
Then, what I like to do is bring the heat back up, add any water or broth that might be necessary and cook up some rice or small pasta like tubettini, ditalini, orzo or pastina. Pastina cooks very quickly and can turn into mush, but mush is sometimes what you're looking for when you're not feeling well.
After the pasta is cooked, I put the meat back in and cook it a bit more. You can add a more delicate veggie like peas at this point. Add a tad more salt and pepper to taste and certainly grate some cheese into each bowl before you serve it.
The other thing you can do is put the cool liquid and veggies into the blender and whir it up a bit so it looks like creamed chicken soup. Then cook the pasta and then add the chicken. This is good if your throat is sore and you don't want to deal with chopped vegetables. ouch. in which case you should call your mother.
Soup's on. Feel better!
I've heard it said that eating lentils on New Year's Day can bring good fortune in the coming year. It's a Northern Italian tradition well worth incorporating because lentils are both nutritous and delicous and this dish is real easy to make.
Vittoria's Quick Lentils for New Year's Day
1 can Squisita lentils in water (you can use dry, but you'll have to cook them longer)
1/2 small onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1/2 can chicken broth (use the whole can if you're using dry lentils)
1 tbs chopped parsley
salt
ground pepper
olive oil
grated cheese
1/2 lb small elbow macaroni or ditalini pasta
Drain and rinse the canned lentils or rinse the dry lentils and set aside.
Finely chop the onion and garlic and saute them in olive oil until translucent.
Add the lentils, broth and parsley and cook until the lentils are tender.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle olive oil and toss with the pasta cooked al dente. Add a touch more salt and pepper to taste and then serve with freshly grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese on top. Yummy!
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