A contemporary stone soup: celery, or celery root soup, with or without cheese

Ciao ragazzi.  A new week, and let us try to  forget the horrors of the week,  with a focus on some good things.  Ascolta:  Annalena was in the tower for the bomb threat, and she walked down 33 flights of stairs.  What sustained her was the woman next to her, who was even more frightened.  In summary, Annalena did what you would expect her to do.  She said to her new friend  'NO, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE, NOW TAKE OFF THOSE HEELS AND GIVE THEM TO ME. YOU'LL WALK FASTER."  Because that, amici, is what we do.    And we cook.  So, let's cook.

Do any of you remember the old story "Stone soup?"  It is a story we might all do well to recall:  someone starts making a very impoverished dish by putting a stone in a kettle with boiling water.  As people go by, they add what extra "anything" they have.  At the end, our hero (sometimes a heroine) eats lavishly.

Annalena thinks of this as a stone soup, because you can pretty much make it from what you probably have in the house.  And, it also features a vegetable you probably have at all times, and never use:  celery.

Annalena is guilty of this.  While there are vegetables she does not like (kale, brussels sprouts, although she is trying on these.  Parsnips, not so much), she likes celery.  And it's in the house, to add "backbone" to dishes.  But she never eats celery as "CELERY."  Can we have a show of hands on that?  Yes, she thought so.  This soup celebrates the indispensable celery.

Or, its relative, celery root.  You will see it sold as "celeriac" at times.  Yes, it IS the root of celery, although what we see in the markets as celery root, is not the root of the celery we buy and don't use.  The actual green vegetable that comes up out of celery root, is stringy, and tough.  You will see it, sometimes, as "soup celery," or in those packages of "vegetables for soup, " where a savvy business person has put together a carrot, an onion, and so forth, and some celery s/he can't sell elsewhere, marked them up 200%, and POOF.  You can make your own soup.

So what else is new?  Annalena digresses.  Conversely, the root of what we buy as "celery," is tiny, and almost useless.    We are going to need one, or both of those today.  We are going to need, as well, some onions, and potatoes, some fresh herbs, and some water. 

What you see in this pictue, behind the box of the (optional) cream cheese, is a celery root.  To prep it, you're going to need to cut away all that brown stuff, and then cut the white stuff into cubes.  But to continue.  We are making four quarts of soup today (stone soup is meant to be shared), but you may cut all of these quantities in half.    And the measurements here, are very, VERY approximate.  You will need one large bunch of celery, preferably organic, leaves and all.  Also two large onions.  You  can also add one small celery root.  OR, you can substitute ALL of the celery, with about 4 pounds of celery root (before you clean it). 

You will need to cut the onions roughly,  and do the same with your celery, and/or the celery root:

You will also need about 2 pounds of potatoes.  You'll peel, and cube these:

These potatoes are a new variety to Annalena, and they are called "satina."  One day, if you are a true food geek, go look up how many varieties of potato there are, and try to learn as much as you can about them.  They are different. Annalena learned that today with these potatoes, as we shall see. 

So, now, we are going to cook.  Get your big old soup pot, and cover the bottom with olive oil.  Add the onions, and a big sprig of rosemary, or several of thyme (and if you don't have them, just make the soup without them)

Drop your heat to VERY low, and cover the pot.  Let these cook at low temperature, and stir them every 2-3 minutes or so.  When they just begin to brown, you're done.  Take the rosemary out after ten minutes.  The onions will take about 15:

At this point, if Annalena told you , you were pretty much finished "cooking, " you would probably believe her.  And you are.  What you do, now, is you add the potatoes, the celery, the celery root, and two quarts of water:

Raise the heat slightly, and cover your pot.   Come back after 20 minutes:

The Guyman would eat this soup as it is, and you can do so, too.  But we're going to go on.  And now that comment about potatoes.  Had Annalena used her usual yukon golds, they would have been tender and falling apart.  In contrast, the satinas essentially took her knife hostage and wouldn't give it back.  So, Annalena cooked the soup another 15 minutes (you will probably need to do that if you use only celery root too).  When she went to the internet, Annalena learned that satinas are an "all purpose waxy potato."

AH.  Waxies take longer to cook, and don't break up (sort of like Annalena and the Guyman).  So, when the potatoes had not disintegrated after 30 minutes, Annalena knew... BASTA. 

Now, if you are going to go the root of cheese,  you will need a package of cream cheese (8 ounces), and the same quantity of sharp cheddar.  

Did you know, by the way, that in Europe,  cream cheese is called "Philadelphia"  Seriously.  You may be able to buy other brands, but rather than call it "cream cheese," which is a very different product in Europe,  you will be buying "Philadelphia"  (and you will pay a lot of money.  It is NOT a big thing in Europe). 

So, whether you are going to use the cheese or not, you now have to puree the soup.  That means letting it cool, to lukewarm, and then doing it in batches.  You have a lot.  Three to  four total trips to your blender are probably needed: 

See that slightly green color to it?  It's beautiful.  You are going to lose it if you add the cheese, so that's something you should consider.  And what you do is you puree the pureed soup again, this time with the cheeses:

Did you notice that Annalena did not mention salt in this recipe?  She did not because , yet more food geek stuff, celery needs salty soil to grow.  It grows where other stuff won't.  And cheddar can be salty.  So at the end, taste your soup, and add the salt you want.    This is what Annalena got:

This is four quarts of soup.  Annalena and the Guyman will eat one.  They will share the other three.  Because, ragazzi,  that is what stone soup is about:  sharing.  And it's something we all need to learn, or learn better.  We HAVE  to start sharing what we have.  Honestly, in Annalena's view, the only thing that is keeping us together is the ability to share with others.  ALL of us have something in abundance.  SHARE IT.  

And  there.  Annalena was preachy ,but "thoughts and prayers" are not  going to cut it anymore.  So, make some soup, SHARE it, and you'll feel much better about things.    Annalena la promessa