
Winter Roots
The base notes of winter meet the peppery spice of new season olive oil in some sort of divine marriage.
Packed with antioxidants and fibre as well as being low in calories, fat and cholesterol, winter roots raise their game significantly when prepared with a high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil impacting both their flavour as well as their nutritional content.
This is a favourite in our family and perfect for the thanksgiving weekend.
Serves 4-6
1kg pumpkin, peeled, cleaned and cut into cubes
1 leek, roughly sliced
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4tbsp extra virgin olive oil
50g fregola
20 sage leaves
Seasoning to taste
Firstly, in a small frying pan, take the sage leaves and a few small cubes of pumpkin, seasoned with a little salt and coated in extra virgin olive oil and slowly sautee until the sage leaves are crispy and the pumpkin has taken some browning at the edges. Set aside.
Meanwhile, add the leek, garlic, potato and pumpkin to a large saucepan with 3tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt. On a medium heat keep them moving until the garlic starts to give a scent. Then add a litre of water, enough to cover the vegetables easily and bring up to the boil, then cover and reduce the heat to a simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are just about ready to give way.
Whilst this is cooking, boil a medium sized pan of salted water and once at boiling point, add the fregole. They typically take around 12 minutes. If you don’t have fregola, large couscous works well.
Drain and set aside.
Once the soup is ready, blitz with a hand blender until smooth and then taste to ensure the seasoning is correct – pumpkin is naturally sweet, so you need to get the salt level right.
To serve, spoon the soup into bowls and then just at the point of serving, add some fregole, sauteed sage and pumpkin and a generous swirl of extra virgin olive oil.
A high polyphenol, decisive olive oil is the perfect choice for a dish like this and so we typically go to central Italy. Lea from Frantoio Gregori is a great choice, as is Il Sincero from Marco Viola.