Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Every day, something happens to remind me of how blessed my life is. Today it was having coffee with two of my favourite people in the whole world, in my favourite coffee haunt in the whole world. This was followed by a visit to Paesanella, the best cheese shop ever, to stock up on weekly supplies of fresh ricotta, mozzarella and olives. Johnny and Rita are always so kind, and they regularly pass me bits and pieces to cook with. Today, Rita gave me a big bag of ham bones (which she does often, bless her), and I’m going to make pasta soup.

Many years ago, as newlyweds, we saved every cent we had, borrowed money from everyone we knew and mortgaged ourselves to the hilt to buy our old house. It was a deceased estate and by the time we found it, it had been on the market for nearly two years. There was a reason for that, too – it had a tiny kitchen, lots of boxy little bedrooms, no living room, no indoor toilet and no shower. The carpets were rotting away, the side fence had been eaten by a jungle of ivy and the electrical wiring was a fire hazard. We loved it to death and still do, but renovating on a non-existent budget is the folly of the young. At 23 and 24, we happily banged away at the walls and lived cheerfully with hot and cold running cockroaches. But it was pretty tight going money-wise.

It was at this time that we met the wonderful Mrs M. Wonderful doesn’t actually begin to describe her, she was (and still is) an absolute star. She was already in her 70s when we moved in next door and she immediately took us under her wing. One of the things she taught us was how to live on a shoestring and to this day, we still make a variation of her pasta soup nearly every week. Now in her 90s, she is as kind and generous as ever, so I wasn’t surprised (but ever so grateful) to come home today and find a tray of figs from her trees, waiting at the back door. Tonight we’ll have figs and San Daniele prosciutto for entrée, and pasta soup for dinner. And give heartfelt thanks to God for letting us live such a blessed life.

Ham, Lentil and Pasta Soup

This is less of a recipe and more of a story. Start with bones of some sort – beg or buy some ham or bacon bones from the deli or butcher, and cross your fingers that they’ll have some meat left on them. If not, you might want to pick up some ham to boost the protein content of your soup. Put all the bones into a big pot and give them a quick rinse, then fill the pot with enough water to comfortably cover the bones. Bring it all to boil and let it simmer for about an hour, so that the bones can really impart their flavour. Skim off any scum or fat that floats on the surface.

Once you’ve skimmed the stock, add some rinsed lentils (I used blue lentils – similar to Puy lentils – as they don’t boil down to a complete mush in the pot), prepared chopped vegetables and some spice mix if you’d like. We use a Chermoula spice mix from Herbies, but I guess you could really use anything, or leave it out altogether. The choice of vegetables will depend on what is in the fridge, but will always include onions, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and celery. At various times, we’ve also added corn kernels, frozen peas, baby spinach leaves, chopped beans, chick peas, rinsed baked beans and zucchini (although not all at the one time!). The vegetables get to cook in the pot for a good half an hour to an hour longer, until the lentils are well done, and the soup is a wholesome brown colour.

At this point, remove the ham bones and strip anything edible off them, and add the meat back into the pot. If there wasn’t much on them to start with, you might want to add the extra ham. Bring the whole pot to a boil, then add half a packet of soup pasta (sometimes we use baby macaroni, other times we’ll use what looks like broken angelhair pasta). I know it doesn’t sound like much, but with all the other ingredients in the soup, that half a packet of pasta makes enough to feed six comfortably (and that’s with Small Man currently eating five bowls at a sitting).

I don’t usually need to add any more seasoning to this, but it’s always good to taste the soup and see if there is enough salt in it. We serve it with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese and a slice of homemade sourdough bread, although lately I’ve taken to stirring in a spoonful of chilli sauce as well. Astonishingly, no-one ever seems to get sick of this soup. We honestly do make it about once a week, and often Small Man will ask the following day if we have any leftovers in the fridge.