Paula Wolfert’s Autumn Squash Soup
You’d think we Californians would have little call for soup.
Enter fog. When not suffering unseasonable ninety-degree heat, Northern California often shelters beneath thick layers of the stuff. Said fog is often accompanied by a uniquely bone-chilling damp. While not precisely cold, neither is it warm. And indeed, as the evenings cool down into the fifties, soup is just the thing.
Autumn Squash Soup with Country Ham and Garlic Croutes is yet another gem from Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking Of Southwest France, occasioned here by two events: I had duck parts to make a broth. And the cooler weather welcomes this undeniably rich soup.
Having made this countless times, I can tell you it happily accepts substitutes. Yes, you can make it with pig–ham, prosciutto, or bacon–or leave it out. Although the soup calls for duck fat, you can use butter or olive oil, or combine the three fats in any ratio. The cup of cream added at the very end can be reduced to a quarter cup and you’ll still have a divine result. If cream makes you shudder, half-and-half or milk work nicely, too. The worst possible outcome is a slightly bland soup, and even then, it’s still addictively delicious.
You’ll need a food processor, blender, or immersion blender to make this. (Lacking all these mechanical items, you could use a potato masher.) If you make any amount of soup, I urge you to invest in an immersion blender. As a person with extremely limited kitchen space and not much money, I give every kitchen purchase lengthy consideration. My immersion blender cost $50.00. It came with a 1-cup food processor and a whisk attachment. It was money well spent. Okay, so you won’t use your immersion blender every day. But when you’ve got a boiling hot soup needing pureeing, nothing does the job better. Do you really want to pour hot soup into a blender or food processor? Apart from not doing yourself bodily harm, there’s cleaning the food processor or blender parts. Immersion blenders are easy to clean: there’s only one piece to rinse off. And if yours, like mine, arrives with a mini-food processor, so much the better.
So, this soup. You can make it with any kind of squash except Delicata, which isn’t meaty enough. That said, acorn, or even better, Red Kuri or Kabocha, have the best flavor. Butternut is nice but dull. I used it here and we agreed it lacked heft.
This recipe makes a lot of soup, and the cream element means freezing isn’t really an option. But even when I make it just for two if us, it gets eaten right up. Make it on a Friday night to eat over the weekend, or make it on a Sunday to eat during the week. Do this when the weather forecast is grim. You’ll be glad you did. It’s also terrific dinner party fare: it reheats well, meaning you won’t be sweating in the kitchen while your friends have all the fun. If said friends are vegetarians, this soup can happily go vegetarian or even vegan. Without the croutes–French for crouton–this you can also feed it to your friends who are on gluten-free diets.
Autumn Squash Soup, Slightly Adapted from Paula Wolfert’s reicpe in The Cooking Of Southwest France
Serves 4-6 as a main course, or 2 with ample leftovers
2 pounds butternut, Kabocha, acorn, or Red Kuri squash
4 cups chicken stock (homemade or best store bought) (See note)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons duck fat or butter
1/2 pound russet or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 small garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
salt and black pepper
1 cup heavy cream, milk, or half and half
generous pinch hot paprika or chili flakes (optional, but the soup is pretty bland without it.)
For the topping
6 ounces thick-cut bacon, ham, or pancetta, sliced into batons
1 small garlic clove, halved
sliced baguette
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice your squash in half and place it, cut sides face down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment or aluminum foil. Roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until squash is completely soft and giving. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
While the squash roasts, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon duck fat in a 4-5 quart soup pot. Add potatoes, onion, and the garlic cloves. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables soften. Do not allow to brown. Add the chicken broth and simmer for 30 minutes.
Returning to the squash: using a large spoon, scoop out the seeds and strings. Scrape flesh free of peel.
Now it’s time to blend the soup. Whether you use a blender, food processor, immersion blender, or potato masher, remember at all times that the soup is hot. Be careful. (I was being so careful that there are no photos of this maneuver.) If you have an immersion blender, remove the soup from the heat. Carefully add the squash and puree. If you have a blender or food processor, blend in batches, slowly and carefully.
Once the squash is fully blended, return it to the pot. Stir in the cream.Taste for seasoning; the soup will need it. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Add the hot paprika, chili flakes, or, as Wolfert does, piment d’Espelette Reheat gently.
To make the optional, calorific, undeniably delish topping:
In a small frying pan, heat the remaining duck fat or butter. Now add your sliced bacon, ham, or pancetta and fry until crisp.
Slice a baguette into thin rounds and rub the slices with a garlic clove. Wolfert crisps the slices in the fat in the frying pan. I do not; the choice is yours.
Serve the soup in deep bowls. The baguette and bacon can be strewn atop the soup or served on the side. You can also bring out the cheese biscuits.
Notes: You can use any kind of light poultry or vegetable stock for this soup. Avoid fish, pork, or beef stocks, which will clash disastrously with the squash flavor.
You can also skip the topping entirely and serve this with just bread–it’s wonderful.
