Pea, ham, and gorgonzola soup

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Pea, ham, and gorgonzola soup

Hello reader,

Tonight’s meal is inspired by Lorraine Elliot and Friday’s post on Not Quite Nigella. It was a best of five post, and number one was pea and ham soup. I highly recommend Lorraine’s blog. Many of my weekend meals are inspired by her posts.

The first week of July is often the coldest in Canberra, so it’s a good month for all things comforting. The comfort of the people I love. Comfort food. Comfortable clothes to fit my growing frame and accommodate my winter coat!!!

Lorraine’s recipe doesn’t include gorgonzola. I got that idea from the cauliflower soup I made a few weeks ago. Cheese in soup is sheer indulgent enjoyment.

How has your week been? On a scale of 1 to 10, mine has been 7. It started poorly last Sunday evening. Queensland and NSW played the second game of this year’s State of Origin series. We were defeated convincingly. At work, my days have been enjoyable. I am always buoyed to be working with intelligent and capable people. In the evening, though, I continue to indulge in refined, processed, sugar-laden products. My chocolate cravings persist.

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Recipe

Equipment

  • Frying pan
  • Pressure cooker
  • Stick blender

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Heat up a frying pan and add some RBO.
  2. Sauté the onions, fennel, celery, and garlic until fragrant and changing colour.
  3. Transfer the onions, fennel, celery, and garlic to the pressure cooker.
  4. Add the MSG, anchovy fillets, split peas, ham hock, bay leaves and vegetable stock to the pressure cooker and cook for 50 minutes.
  5. Open the pressure cooker when the internal pressure equilibrates with the outside pressure.
  6. Remove the cooked ham hock (and bones if the bones have slipped out) from the soup.
  7. Add the frozen peas, so the residual heat cooks them.
  8. Puree the soup with a stick blender to make it smoother.
  9. Add chunks of gorgonzola to the soup.
  10. Remove the meat from the bone and pull it into small pieces.
  11. Ladle soup into a bowl and add the ham.
  12. Season the soup with pepper.
  13. Give thanks to the Lord.
  14. Eat with a spoon.

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Serving options

This soup would have been great with a piece of well-buttered crusty sourdough bread. You could also add some garnish, like finely sliced chives or finely chopped parsley.

I have enough soup leftover to freeze in vacuum-sealed bags. I’ll reheat them in a water bath set to about 80 °C for 30 minutes and enjoy a warm bowl of soup after work.

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Thoughts on the soup

This was a heart-warming soup that was flavourful and unctuous. I’m grateful I have some leftovers. I put it into vacuum bags and have two portions in the freezer ready for later in the week.

Some people experience a lot of flatus after pea and ham soup. Tomorrow is going to be explosive. 😆💨

Final thoughts

  • What comforts you in winter?
  • What soup have you made recently?
  • Would you add gorgonzola to a pea and ham soup?

Bibliography and glossary

Winter coat

A winter coat is also known as abdominal adipose tissue!

Pal, Y. P., & Pratap, A. P. (2017). Rice Bran Oil: A Versatile Source for Edible and Industrial Applications. J Oleo Sci, 66(6), 551-556. https://doi.org/10.5650/jos.ess17061

Raman, V., Bussmann, R. W., & Khan, I. A. (2017). Which Bay Leaf is in Your Spice Rack? – A Quality Control Study. Planta Med, 83(12-13), 1058-1067. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-103963

Rose, D. J., Poudel, R., Van Haute, M. J., Yang, Q., Wang, L., Singh, M., & Liu, S. (2021). Pulse processing affects gas production by gut bacteria during in vitro fecal fermentation. Food Res Int, 147, 110453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110453

Torri, L., Aprea, E., Piochi, M., Cabrino, G., Endrizzi, I., Colaianni, A., & Gasperi, F. (2021). Relationship between Sensory Attributes, (Dis) Liking and Volatile Organic Composition of Gorgonzola PDO Cheese. Foods, 10(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112791

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Photo gallery

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11 Responses

  1. Aww Gary thank you so much for trying my recipe and for the kind words! I’m so glad that you liked it and adding gorgonzola is a stroke of genius. I’ll try that next time for sure 😀

  2. This looks great! I’ve seen lots of restaurant menus featuring some form of gorgonzola soup, and it sounds so comforting. In the winter, we eat lots of soups and stews here. Cheers!

  3. I’m not a fan of cheese soups. I would eat the pea and ham soup on its own and eat the gorgonozola dolce with a pear or an apple and a glass of red.

  4. My other half makes a terrific lentil soup, which is great in winter. I haven’t made soup for ages, but your one looks amazing and I would add gorgonzola to a pea and ham soup…

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