Skip to main content
Soup

Potage Ci 1’ Italienne, H. LA Purde De Lentilles

A thick Italian vegetable soup served with a lentil purée poured over the top.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Potage Ci 1’ Italienne, H. LA Purde De Lentilles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vegetable base

  1. Combine the onions, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, turnips, celery, leeks, parsley roots and peas in a stewpot.

  2. Cover with water.

  3. Boil slowly.

Make the lentil purée

  1. In another pot, boil the lentils in water.

  2. Add 1/3 cup of fine oil and a little salt.

  3. Once the lentils are cooked, strain them.

  4. Dilute the strained lentils with the vegetable broth.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the strained broth and lentils in the stewpot.

  2. Add more oil and salt as needed.

  3. Serve the soup thick, pouring the lentil purée on top.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Break down into a thickening purée that gives the soup body and creaminess.
Fine oil
Adds fat for smooth mouthfeel and carries flavour through the soup.
Onions
Form a sweet, aromatic base that builds flavour for the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and colour to the vegetable broth.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like aroma and savoury depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Strain the cooked lentils. Lentils must be fully cooked before straining, since undercooked lentils stay firm and will not form a smooth purée that blends into the soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsnip, cabbage, turnip, celery, leek, parsley):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsnip, cabbage, turnip, celery, leek, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Cream of CeleryCream of Celery37 recipesMeatless Green Pea SoupMeatless Green Pea Soup22 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipes