PEASANT ONION SOUP – Recipe by Piero Benigni – This dish is either suitable for a family meal and a great idea if you have guests, who will enjoy and remember it for a long time. It’s easy and can be prepared in about one hour. In this recipe of mine it’s served on toasted bread slices with cheese slices on top, assuring an outstanding result!
Onions are healthy for digestion, diuresis and metabolism. They also contain several vitamins, mineral salts and trace elements, so a frequent use is recommended.
Ingredients for 4 persons
- 1 kgonions (2 1/4 lb)
- 1400 mlvegetable broth (1 1/2 qt)
- 3 spoonsolive oil (tablespoons, or 1 oz butter)
- 1/2 teaspoonflour
- bread (toasted, at taste)
- cheese slices (at taste)
- cheese (grated parmesan, at taste)
Tools for the Peasant onion soup
- Cooker
- Pot
- Chopping Board
- Knife
- Toaster
- Sieve tea type
- Wooden Spoon
- Scale
You can use onions of any variety, only the colour will change. Prepare 1.4 litres (1 1/2 qt) of vegetable broth. Clean and coarsely chop onions. Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or 1 ounce of butter) in the pot, heat it up and add chopped onions. Pour 2 tablespoons of broth, stir, cover with lid and stew over a very mild flame for 20 minutes, with onions just sizzling. Stir often. If they dry too much, add a little more broth.
While onions are stewing toast some thin slices of Italian or country bread and set apart. Put broth on the cooker and let boil.
Drop a half teaspoon of flour through a tea strainer, increase the heat to medium and start stirring vigorously for about one minute until you see a whitish and sticky batter on onions. Pour the boiling broth, add some salt, stir and continue cooking with the pot almost completely covered and the soup just simmering. After 30 minutes check if salt is ok and if the soup is pleasing to the palate. Should it be a little sour, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar or 2-3 tablespoons of a sweet wine like Porto or Malaga. Cook for 5 more minutes and serve hot on toasted bread, adding some thin slices of the soft cheese you prefer on top. Sprinkle with grated parmesan and grind some pepper if you like.
This soup, obviously without the bread or cheese, can be kept for 3 days in the fridge and frozen with a 3 months life. In any case let it boil again for a few minutes before serving.