POTATO AND LEEK SOUP WITH CRISPY BACON’

We were 8 friends at dinner. They wanted to change the world.
Not a whiff of masks. Relaxed faces, smiles, palatal orgasms only.
When the need to pretend does not knock at your door, missing the appointment.
They say that being yourself is one of the most difficult things to accomplish in the pages of our lives.

Be yourself.

We must learn to be what we already are? It sounds like telling a rose to learn how to perfume.
Insane and true.
Perhaps the happiness also lies in this, learning to Be without contemplating the Not to Be.
Shape yourself without distorting.

To make long story short. My friends Andrea and Fra organized a dinner. Wine was not lacking. That’s the why of the ravings above. I said, they cooked this awesome potato and leek soup with crispy bacon.
One of those dishes that, to be clear, after a minute of tastings and moaning enclosing all the possible satisfaction in the universe, not much goes on here. Only the symphony of the steel that, in vain, and in spite of themselves, are rubbed on the porcelain, the pace, in a frantic research of the last lovely bones. Satisfaction. Greed.
So I did the dirty work, my friend described the recipe. Just two changes. However, Andrea and Fra are two great souls. Without knowing them, no doubt you will agree with me when you’ll taste this cream.
Oh, Luca, the same Luca who refuses to eat “cooked vegetables” or soups or stews or creams – begs me to cook it on a weekly basis. And I’ve told you everything.

POTATO AND LEEK SOUP WITH CRISPY BACON – the recipe

INGREDIENTS (serves 6)

• 600 gr of potatoes
• 1 leek
• Vegetable stock q.s.
• 150 ml of cream (or milk as you prefer)
• 80 gr of grated Parmesan
• a pinch of turmeric and brown sugar
• Extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, salt q.s.
• 50 gr of bacon
• Homemade brown bread
• A clove of garlic

While you’re tasting, listen: Take it out on me, White Lies

PROCESS

1. Put in a saucepan a little extra virgin olive oil with leek cutted into rings – keep aside the Leek bottom, the part closest to the root. Cook for a few minutes over low heat.
2. Peel, wash and chop the potatoes; add them to the leeks and pour in the stock. Cook for an hour and a half, stirring ocasionally (if you have pressure cooker the cooking time are halved).
3. Turn off the heat, add salt and pepper, add the cream and the grated Parmesan; blend with an immersion blender trying to incorporate air as much as possible. When you have obtained a velvety and creamy soup cover with a lid and set aside for a moment.
4. Get the leek that you set aside initially, eliminates the bottom with the roots, cut very thin slices, obtaining a sort of julienne.
5. On very low heat, put in a skillet a little olive oil, the leek julienne and a pinch of sugar. When the leek is cooked and slightly caramelized, add salt and a dash of turmeric.
6. In a pan roast the bacon and set aside.
7. In the same pan add a little olive oil and a clove of garlic, so toast the bread in a very thin slices.
8. Serve the leek and potato soup with croutons, a few slices of bacon and, finally, the caramelized leek julienne.

Ph. Sara Cartelli
© The Eat Culture