Soupe au pistou
The great summer soup of fresh beans and garden vegetables, finished at the last moment with a pistou of garlic and basil.
Pistou comes from the Provençal pista, “to pound”: pistou is first of all what you pound in a mortar. It is a cousin of Genoese pesto, but without pine nuts, and often without cheese in the oldest versions.
Soupe au pistou is a summer dish. It waits for fresh coco beans, shelled as a family, and the first courgettes. It is a thick soup, almost a stew, made in large quantities: it is even better reheated the next day, as long as the pistou goes in at the last moment so it keeps its scent.
There is no single recipe. Depending on the village and the family, people add a leek, a carrot, flat beans or macaroni broken by hand. Only one rule is unanimous: the basil must be fresh and plentiful.
Recipe · Soupe au pistou
- Serves
- 6 people
- Preparation
- 40 min
- Cooking
- 70 min
Ingredients
- 300 g fresh white coco beans, shelled
- 200 g fresh red coco beans, shelled
- 200 g green beans
- 2 courgettes
- 2 potatoes
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 100 g small pasta (elbows or broken macaroni)
- salt
- For the pistou: 1 large bunch of basil, 3 garlic cloves, 100 ml olive oil
- Optional: 60 g grated aged cheese (parmesan or dry tomme)
Step by step
- In a large pot, cover the coco beans with 2.5 litres of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Cook for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, dice the courgettes, potatoes, onion and tomatoes, and cut the green beans into short lengths.
- Add all the vegetables to the pot and simmer gently for 40 minutes.
- Add the pasta and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring now and then.
- For the pistou, pound the garlic with a pinch of salt in a mortar, add the basil leaves and pound to a paste. Work in the olive oil in a thin stream, then add the cheese if you like.
- Off the heat, stir the pistou into the soup just before serving, or serve it separately so everyone can help themselves.
Sources
- Soupe au pistou — Wikipédia