Italian Rice & Celery Soup

We both like soup and we have a really fresh looking head of green celery in the organic box. I think you should try to use organic, for this recipe as it tastes so much stronger, and the celery flavour really carries the soup. Surprisingly he thinks celery & rice soup will be quite nice.

450g green celery (ideally organic)

125g floury potato

1 small onion, very finely chopped

2.2 litres veg stock

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

30g unsalted butter

125g Italian short grain rice

Freshly grated parmesan to serve

This is from Northern Italy (properly called Minestra di Riso e Sedano), so I’m putting on a CD of Venetian lute music, to get me and all the ingredients in the right frame of mind. Ideally the rice should be Vialone Nano but any Arborio style will do.

Remove the celery leaves, chop them and set them aside. Run a vegetable peeler down the outside of the celery to remove any stringy bits and chop half of the stalks.

Peel the potato and chop into dice about the same size as the chopped celery and add to a pan with half the oil and half the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the vegetables are cooked and soft. Pour into a food processor and blend until smooth. Letting it cool a bit will be a good idea.

Wash the saucepan. I was tempted to ask the boy to do this but it’s quicker to just do it.

Add the butter and the rest of the oil, and sauté the onion for about 10 minutes. Cut the rest of the celery into small batons, about 1cm long and then add them to the onion for another 5 mins.

Add the puree and the rest of the stock to the pan, a bit of each at a time to get the thickness you like. When it’s all combined and warmed through, ladle into bowls. Sprinkle on the parsley leaves. Let the boy help himself to the parmesan – there’s no telling how much or how little he will want. Serve with warm, buttered dinner rolls.