How to make Sicilian endive soup
Sicily is a special place. As if time has stood still there, perhaps a little mysterious, and above all: with an exceptionally rich cuisine, full of the sunny flavors that nature offers the island. Endive is hardly ever used in Sicily as a green salad or fried as a side dish, but rather as an ingredient in soups. This is the kind of soup – mild and nourishing – that tastes wonderful when you come home from a long journey or when you’re not feeling quite yourself. Both ordinary endive and curly endive work well in this recipe.
In Sicily, endive is also used as a filling or topping for bread or pizza, such as the focaccia from Messina with endive and tomato, a specialty from the city in the northeast. But for now: let’s make a Sicilian soup!
How to make Sicilian endive soup
- Cut the endive into 5 cm pieces, rinse well and leave to drain in a colander.
- In a large pan, fry the red onion in the olive oil over medium heat for 8–10 minutes until soft; stir occasionally.
- Add the endive and stir-fry for 1 minute to coat the leaves with the oil.
- Add the water and 1 teaspoon of salt, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan and let the soup simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the endive is tender.
- Add the pasta to the soup and cook for 6–8 minutes until al dente. Taste the soup and add a little more salt if necessary.
- Ladle the hot soup into 4 bowls.
- Top with some provolone and serve with the Parmesan.
Note: You can make this soup up to the step where you add the pasta up to 3 days in advance and store it fully cooled in the refrigerator. Reheat the soup slowly, add the pasta and continue following the recipe.
Title: The Cuisine of Sicily
Author: Fabrizia Lanza
Price: €35
Publisher: Uitgeverij Brandt
The Cuisine of Sicily is a tribute to the classic food culture of the Italian island. Fabrizia Lanza grew up in a well-known family of Sicilian winemakers. She worked in the art world in Europe and the US for 25 years before returning to Sicily in 2006 to help her mother with her Anna Tasca Lanza’s Cooking School.
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