A soup to exist on

I fall into the category of people who could exist on soup. Not a watery, sad can of Campbell’s soup with mystery meat they call chicken but rather hearty, homemade concoctions packed with vegetables.

If you are following Weekend Gourmet, you’ve seen a few of my favorites like Perfect Chicken soup, Lentil soup and Tortilla soup. These have been in my soup repertoire for a few years but this fall, I decided to experiment with a few new soups to change things up.

Without further ado, please welcome Potato Pancetta soup to the blog. I could exist on this soup.  The broth alone, which is enriched with the smoky flavor of pancetta, is to die for.

Cream of Potato soup has always been one of my favorites. In my opinion, this perfectly lovely soup has been bastardized by chain restaurants into a clumpy mess most commonly called Baked Potato Soup. Now, I am not one to hold back when it comes to adding cream to soup but seriously, the most commonly found version I alluded to is like a heart attack in a bowl. And the worst part is, it’s not even that good! The potatoes get lost in a mess of gloppy cream and there isn’t any complex flavor to the broth.

On Sunday, I set out to create the perfect potato soup. I started by melting butter in my favorite soup pot along with two cloves garlic that I minced and half of an onion, chopped. To the browning garlic, I added five slices of pancetta which I had chopped to smithereens. This was a nice way to take out some post-election aggression.

 There is no better smell than that of pancetta browning in a pan with garlic and onion. My mouth was watering about two minutes into this new recipe which couldn’t be a bad sign.

Then, I added in carrots and celery and sautéed the mixture until the vegetables started to soften.

Next to the pancetta, the main star of this dish would be the buttery yukon gold potatoes.

I peeled (okay, I missed a few spots here and there because I absolutely detest peeling potatoes) and diced five to six potatoes. Then, I added them to the vegetable and pancetta mixture and threw in one teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Finally, I added one and a half containers of chicken broth. I prefer the Progresso brand (low sodium) if I don’t have time to make my own.

Let the soup simmer on the stove and once the potatoes are soft, strain out half the potatoes from the soup and place in a small bowl. To the potatoes, add one cup of whole milk. Mash the potatoes in the milk. Then, add the mixture back to the rest of the soup. You are left with a pot of creamy potato and pancetta goodness.

Can life get any better? Not really.

Perfect Potato Pancetta Soup
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
5 slices pancetta, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3/4 cup carrots, chopped
5-6 yukon gold potatoes, diced
1 large container chicken broth (add another half of a container of broth if you want a thinner soup)
1 cup whole milk

Details
Place a large soup pot over medium heat and melt butter.  Add garlic, pancetta and onion and cook until lightly browned.  Add carrots and celery and cook until slightly tender.  Add diced potatoes to the mixture.

Add chicken broth.  Allow soup to cook over medium heat until potatoes are soft.  Once soft, strain half of the potatoes (there may be some of the other ingredients mixed in and this is okay) and place in a medium bowl.  Add milk to the mixture and mash. 

Return the mashed mixture to the remainder of the soup in the pot and stir.  Cook for five more minutes and serve.