Farro Tuscan Soup with Christine

0:00It's time for R-O-T-D Weekend. I have to say that I am even more obsessed with my go-to tub to the point where I'm thinking of having two of them. So if you haven't heard me talk about the go-to tub, I will tell you what it is. It is made. My cooking life just really easy and I've been wasting less. There are a lot of things I love about it. I'll tell you about it. So it is something I talk about in the cookfortwo.us membership community if you haven't joined it yet. Why not? It is a community for people who are cooking for small households. We have all kinds of meal plans in there, over 80 recipes, all for two people, and there's lots of tips and different downloadable PDFs, little courses. We do a monthly Zoom chat with me and whoever shows up, like just like not in person, like face-to-face on Zoom, chatting about what we're doing in the kitchen, ideas and strategies,

1:03having fun, and then the live cooking demos. Those are open to the public at this point, but you are insiders and we know who you are when we see you in the comments. We're calling you out. It's just a really, really fun time. If you haven't seen those, if you go to the cookful.com slash demo, it takes you to the listing for our upcoming one. It's on YouTube on March 29th at 6 p.m. Easter. We'll be cooking through three meals for two there, and if you scroll down, you can actually watch the replays of the other two that we've done. So lots of really good recipes and tips, and Marty and I are having them blast. I think you're gonna love it. So, that is what cookfortwo.us is a community for people cooking for small households, and within that community and almost everything that I do, I end up talking about the go-to tub because I love it so much. So the go-to tub is a container that lives in your fridge, and it could just be like one of those large plastic baby spinach leaf containers, spring mix containers.

2:05One of those you've washed out. Sometimes I line it with paper towel, but it's just that container or you can buy something fancy if you want to. And then what goes in there are the vegetables and like herbs and things that you've cut into or used that you know you want to make use of first before you start another one. So if I use half of a bell pepper, the other half goes in my go-to tub, half of a tomato, the other half goes in there. I'll have a bunch of green onions usually in there, sometimes part of a red onion, sometimes half a white onion, and then there's usually if I have any herbs, if I've been doing well, any kind of photo shoot that I usually have some parsley or cilantro for the garnishes on things, but also I really like Italian parsley and cilantro. So I will say that actually I used to hesitate to buy them if I wasn't doing a big photo shoot day because I was worried that I wouldn't go through them. But since I've been using the go-to tub all the time and they're in there, I have been using them up so much more often.

3:07So the key is you have your go-to tub. Whenever you're starting cooking, like right before you start, you pull out the go-to tub, put it on the counter and look at what's in there. Then you know that those are the things you need to use up first. If you're making a salad, that bell pepper, that half a tomato, that's what's going in there, right? Some of that red onion, and if you have herbs in there, those can go in the salad too. And then same thing if you're making like a spaghetti sauce, well you have half of a red onion already started, you can use that in your spaghetti instead of a white onion if you want to, or if you have half a white onion, or the ends of the green onion can be cooked into all kinds of things as well. I often have like, you know, when it's just me and Marty here, we really like cauliflower salads and broccoli salads, so I'll have had a head of cauliflower and now I just have like half of that left, that'll go in there too. So now if I'm doing a stir fry or anything like that, there's just all these little bits and pieces in that tub. So that's great for when you start cooking. But the thing that I think I love even more is that it makes the cleanup from cooking

4:09easy too, because as I have those little other half bits accumulating through my cooking, those are going into that bin as well, and then the bin goes into the fridge and it's just that like one step. So I have been loving it so much, I am seriously thinking about getting a second go to tub. I mean I have multiple of those containers, I actually mean making space in my fridge to have two of them, because I'm finding my one is getting a little bit full. It tends to have like I said, the bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and like some cauliflower will be in there, sometimes onion, and then I also have a lot of the herbs. The herbs could just take up space. I wash them and then I wrap them in a damp paper towel and put them back in. And so I'm thinking about doing a separate bin for the herbs I haven't decided yet. I'm leaning into it because I really love having the go to tub. If you haven't tried it, give it a try, get one of those containers and just start today when you're cooking, anytime you have a half of something or partial something, put it in there.

5:10Now I'll say I keep some little sandwich baggies right in my go to tub so that as I accumulate those small bits, I can put each one into one of those little bags and then they're like wrapped in plastic essentially. It's not necessary, my friend Carla does a go to tub and she just puts everything in there loose and since it's a plastic bin with a plastic lid, everything stays pretty nice in there. You could do a damp paper towel over top and then the plastic lid. You don't have to do the bags. I like the bags. I kind of like move them around and move things in there like that, but that's up to you. So you just as you cook, start putting things in there and then when you are going to cook next time, you pull that out first and go to it and I'm going to tell you you are going to use up those ingredients and like it feels fun. I'm like, oh, I can make the whole salad from here today and everything is right there for you. Really, really cool. Now I'm going to say I know I keep being apologetic about this, but it's just my life. My laptop is still not working. My sound area like how I usually record interviews through my computer with another person so that

6:13we both sound great. It is not working and so I am just going with it and not recording interviews for now. And you get more of me. I hope that's okay with you. It's okay with me. I'm having a good time. I'm just explaining why it's happening. I am hoping to go back to interviews once everything is set up. It just hasn't been a priority. You know, I need Marty to look at the computer, find out if there's a virus on it. If so, uninstall everything, reinstall everything and then hook everything back up again. And that just has felt like a lot of work and not a priority since every other part of my computer world is working just fine. So that's why it's getting put off. But I will eventually do it and then we'll have interviews again. For now, I am going to take a little break. And when we come back, I'm going to do again a recipe that I make that isn't really a recipe, just like something that I cook on a whim on a regular Wednesday night. And I'm going to explain that to you after the break.

7:20So there is a dinner that everybody who is ever here loves. I mean, if it's just me and Marty, if it's me and Marty and all the kids, we all love this dinner. And it is a version of Tuscan soup that I started making years ago with Pharaoh. It's a grain. Some people call it Pharaoh. I call it Pharaoh. I make it with Pharaoh instead of potatoes. So if you've had Tuscan soup at Olive Garden, it's like a thin, creamy soup with Italian sausage and potatoes in it. And so it's still that. Oh, it also kale. It's still that. But instead of the potatoes, I do the Pharaoh. And I start it out just because it's healthier than potatoes to have that nice grain in that soup. But what we actually discovered or what I realized is that the Pharaoh has a similar texture

8:20to the crumbled cooked Italian sausage in the soup. And so as you're eating it, it kind of feels like there's extra sausage in there. And that is extra delicious. Now, I don't use a recipe to make this. I make it the same way every time. And I'm just going to tell you what I do. So I usually make this in the Instant Pot. It makes a big batch. I make this and we have it for dinner probably twice. And then I have it for lunch a couple times over the week. So it makes a big pot of soup. This would not be one of the cook for two. Us recipes for sure. Although I have done a half version for me. And Marty, if I know that we're going to be like having busy days and we're going to want to have it a couple days in a row, I've done that for sure. Okay, so for the big batch, you are starting with a cup of uncooked Pharaoh. And I will cook that in the Instant Pot usually. Now, what I'll actually tell you is I usually make the full two cups. The package I buy of the Pharaoh is a 14 ounce package. I usually cook the whole thing and then put half in a container.

9:22And then the other half goes into the soup. I like having something like Pharaoh in the fridge for like a side dish the next day for dinner. Sometimes I'll warm it up and I'll fry up an egg and put that on top. It's a really nice lunch with a salad or some chopped tomatoes. So I like to have that kind of grain in a container in the fridge. So I will usually cook the full batch. I'll tell you how to do both so you know. So if it's a full 14 ounce pack, it's just over two cups. You're going to put that in the Instant Pot with three cups of water. Some salt and you put that on high pressure cook for 12 minutes and then do a quick release. Open it up and all the water is going to be absorbed. And it's going to be just like cooked through but not like soggy. And it's going to stay warm on the stay warm function for a long time. If you want to leave it there like that. Now for half the amount of Pharaoh that you just need for the soup, it is literally just use half of those ingredients. It's one cup of the Pharaoh, one and a half cups of water, some salt and still 12 minutes with a quick release.

10:24And it's still going to stay warm for a long time. So that is what you do. If you made the full batch scoop half of the Pharaoh out of the pot. If you made just the amount you need, leave it in there. Now while that is cooking, I cook up some Italian sausage. So I usually get the mild Italian sausage meat. So it's not in sausages, it kind of looks like ground beef, but it's Italian sausage flavored. I usually get two packages of those. So two pounds of that, you could use two packs of the sausages and take the casings off. And you're just going to brown those however you want. So you can do that in a frying pan, you can do it in the air fryer, whatever, you just need that meat cooked and crumbled. And then once it's cooked and crumbled, drain away the fat. And that goes into the instant pot with your cooked Pharaoh. And then to that, you also add one carton, a four cup carton of chicken broth. I think it actually says 907 milliliters. So it's not quite four cups, but you know what I mean? Those cartons of broth, you could use bouillon mixed with four cups of water.

11:29Just you want it to be flavorful and you add that into there. And then you just heat that up. So you can put it on to pressure cook for zero minutes. That will bring it all up to heat. Or you can just simmer it like on saute, on high, stir it every now and then. That'll work. You just want it up to a simmer. While that's coming up to the simmer, you get a bunch of kale, just regular kale. And you take the leaves off of the stems and then wash them really well. They can be gritty. And then I chop them finely like ribbons, right? Little ribbons and just chop that all up. Once the Pharaoh mixture has come up to a simmer, add that kale back in, just the leaves that you washed, got the stems. And I will actually say, I have bought the bags of pre-washed chopped kale to make this before. And my kids didn't like it because there are the stems in there. And they don't soften enough in the time that we're cooking this soup. If you were going to cook it for longer,

12:29pressure cook it for a couple of minutes with the kale in there, it would probably be okay. But the way that I'm explaining you to do it here, you wouldn't want those stems in there. So that's why I get the bunch of kale and pull the leaves off for myself. Okay, so you're adding that chopped up kale into there, stir until it's wilted. Now at this point, I will sometimes add more chicken broth. I'm not sure why I feel like sometimes I want it thinner or thicker. Maybe sometimes there's a little more Pharaoh because I made the full batch and didn't quite put half away. So it's just like too thick of a soup. I'll decide that at this point, keeping in mind that I am about to add some cream. So I'm just sort of stirring and deciding like, does this seem too thick? If so, I might add some more chicken broth or water. Actually, there's quite a bit of flavor in this soup now from the Italian sausage. So just some water is fine too. So I'm deciding that at this point. I will tell you that one trick is to add some fennel seed, crushed fennel seed added to this soup at this point, has the flavor of Italian sausage,

13:30because there's fennel seed in the Italian sausage. And so that with the Pharaoh makes it taste like there's more sausage and we love more sausage. I will also be tasting at this point for salt. I might add some pepper and I usually add some garlic powder. So I'm just tasting and doctoring that up to taste good. Now the kale has wilted in, everything is hot, and then I stir in one cup of heavy cream. And I don't even warm it through again at that point, because it's pretty hot and good, and it's delicious. I promise you you will love this soup, and you'll feel really good about it. I mean, I know there is that one cup of cream in there, but like, I think there's at least eight portions of soup. So it is not very much cream. It is lots of Pharaoh. There is kale in there. I'm telling you, my kids don't really like kale, but they eat it in this soup. So there you have it. That is how I make our family's favorite Tuscan soup. I hope you give it a try. I will actually put a link to my Zupa Tuscana recipe, that is from Cook the Story.

14:32I do have that on my site. Now I'm actually looking at it. It is similar to what I've just said, except it's done on the stove, and it doesn't have the Pharaoh. It has the potatoes instead, but it makes a big pot of soup. So you could like use what I've said together with this recipe to riff your own version, you know? So I will link to the Zupa Tuscana for you. That's more like the Olive Garden copycat recipe. I will put that link in the show notes for you, and I will be back after the break. Okay, so what is going on in my kitchen this week? I can tell you that my son Jeremy and I are finishing up the recipe he's been working on for the site. And I might actually try and do an interview with him for this show soon. I don't want to promise anything, because it depends on his schedule a lot. But we don't have to do it over the internet. We can do it in person. So I think I could actually record that easily enough.

15:34So I might do that soon. And you guys will enjoy hearing from him. He's a charming, interesting young man for sure. And yeah, he has a recipe to tell us about. So that will be fun. So we're finishing that off. And then I'm actually working on a couple of recipes so one is for a traditional Mexican soup called Pizzole that I had at a street festival here last summer. It might have been spring and fell in love with. And I started doing like a quick version at home. You know, that's how a lot of these recipes come to the website. I started doing this quick version at home for us. And then at some point went, you know what, I think this is good enough that it needs to be on the website. And maybe my kids will want to make it one day too, you know? So that is a recipe that I am finishing off doing one last test, probably the pictures in the video. And then the other one is my version of Mary Me Chicken. Oh, it's so good.

16:34It's like become a modern classic. If you haven't had it before, you need to have it. I am finishing off a version that uses like thinly cut chicken cutlets. So they're really, really quick cooking. And it's so easy and full of flavor. It's chicken and a creamy sauce with sundried tomatoes and fresh basil. I honestly don't love the trope that like if I make this for you, you're going to want to marry me or whatever that is. I that's a little, I don't know, I put that creepy or something. But whatever it is so good that you might just want to get married when you taste it. I don't know, I don't know where to go with that. But yeah, it is, it is really yummy. So I do that one quite often as well. And yeah, I'm just putting the finishing touches on it. I have never like measured how much cream I put into it. For instance, so that is like the last step in turning this from recipe I make on a whim for my family to something that goes on the website. And I'm working on that this week. And then we're actually going on vacation.

17:35We're going to go visit my parents who are snow burning in Mexico. So we are leaving for that trip this week. Don't worry, you will still have an episode. I will pre-record it. Everything will be fine and normal on schedule. But I'm not doing too much more this coming week because we have a big trip. And there's lots to do for that. Now, what is new on the website? Oh, new recipes love them. Speaking of my parents, one of the new recipes is a Rubin Sandwich. They had a Rubin on their deli menu. And because of that, I can say that I have made and eaten way more Rubins than the average person. And to the point where I was actually featured in an article by the takeout about how to improve your Rubin Sandwich. And because of that, I was like, you know what? I should really have this Rubin recipe on the website because I do know so much about how to make these so perfectly. So that is up on cook the story. If you love a Rubin Sandwich, you've got to go for that. And you know what?

18:35It's perfect if you are doing any kind of like corn beef brisket for same Patrick's Day coming up. You might have corn beef leftover and that is a perfect use for it. Rubin Sandwich is the day after same Patrick's Day. I am in. The other recipe that is new on the sites is my classic meatloaf recipe on the cookful. This one came about because I had so many meatloaf recipes on the site. Every now and then, somebody would comment or ask me if they could cook the recipe in a loaf pan. And I would tell them how to do it because all of mine were on sheet pans. But I didn't actually have a perfected meatloaf in a loaf pan recipe that I had specifically made to be cooked in a loaf pan. And so I decided it was time. And this one, I probably did. You know, I said 20. I think there were more, but at least 20 versions of this recipe to get it just perfect. And it is exactly what mellow should be. You will love that. That's on the cookful. Okay, I think that is everything from me today. You heard about the go-to tub. You heard about cookfortwo.us

19:35and about our live cooking demos. Go to thecookful.com slash demo. And you can watch the past ones and get ready for the upcoming one as well. And I told you about Zupa Tuscana. And when I'm doing this week, I want to know so much delicious food. Thank you for joining me for all of it. I really appreciate that you're out there. I'm Christine Pittman from cooklistory.com, thecookful.com, cookfortwo.us. And this podcast recipe of the day, I hope you have a great weekend. Let's get cooking.