Altamura pea soup (Minestra di piselli di Altamura)
When I was in Altamura, in Puglia, I worked with a family of bakers who all lived in the same big house. Each part of the family had its own living-room and kitchen. I went back home with them one day and four different families were cooking four different meals – it was very surreal. This pea soup was one of the dishes being made. And it's so simple – just four ingredients and 15 minutes simmering is all it takes. I've only ever made this soup with freshly podded peas, but frozen peas work well too. If I'm using fresh peas, what I like to do to make the soup even more tasty is to boil up the stock with the shells of the peas. You can do this while you're frying the onions. Then you can strain the stock onto your onions and peas when they're ready and fill the pan up again with water to boil your spaghetti while the soup simmers.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 9 of 10 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 9 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Pea | 1/2 cup (72g) | 62 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Basil | 5 leaves fresh (2.5g) | 1 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Peppermint | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 large handfuls freshly podded peas
- 1.1 litres organic chicken stock
- 255 g dried spaghetti, broken into about 2.5cm lengths
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 sprig of fresh mint, optional
- 1 sprig of fresh basil, optional
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, optional
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped