Escarole Soup
This recipe is from Bill McKay, who is one of the Franchi agents in America. His mother was
from the Abruzzo region of Italy, and this is a variation on how she used to make it. There are as
many ways of making escarole soup as there are cooks in Italy.
A variation on the bread is to add some cooked cannellini beans or broken pieces of pasta
about 15 minutes before the end of cooking. Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 clove of garlic, plus more to serve
1 small onion, chopped
50–75 g pancetta, chopped
olive oil
2–3 celery sticks, chopped
1.2 litres stock or water
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 head of escarole, cleaned and chopped into
bite-sized pieces
bread slices
Cook the garlic, onion and pancetta in some olive oil. Don’t let things brown. Add the
celery, followed by the stock and the tomatoes. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15–20 minutes.
Add the escarole and continue cooking until everything is done.
To serve, grill or toast some slices of good bread. Rub with garlic, place in a soup bowl and
ladle the soup over the grilled bread.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster
