Sometimes, when you’ve been busy shopping for antique silverware on a cool fall day, you just feel like a bowl of home-made beef vegetable soup with some freshly baked focaccia. Just to be clear, I’ve had focaccia in Liguria that blows your mind. Let’s call mine a humble ‘plain focaccia’, simply sporting some kosher salt and olive oil from a small producer near Petroio, Tuscany. I’m such a snob.
Remember me mentioning searing beef in the dark one morning? This soup was born from the cooking liquor that was that braise, and inspired by this. I’d say it’s my first properly executed beef vegetable soup. Proud to say all the veg are from the garden, and that my wife even liked it. I have a tendency to over-garnish soup and turn them into mushy stew-like nastiness. I guess I’ve learned my lesson.
I had to include the shot on the left because the copious pools of olive oil hanging out on the hot bread just looked so dang good. I just switched to an Italian brand of yeast, and I have to say I notice a difference. It smells grapy when fresh, oddly, and offers smells I’m not familiar with throughout the baking process. All good though. And this photo also includes the bottle of Burgundy that went with dinner. I’m spoiled.
I took photos today in prep for a post about baking a ‘boule’. I’m hoping to get that up tomorrow.