Soupe au Pistou (Vegetable Soup With Pesto)

See Step 3 - "...then stir in remaining vegetables and pasta."

From someone who grew up in Provence: I have never seen this soup made with fava beans, but with Romano beans and a white type of beans - haricots blancs. In Canada, I just use more Romano beans. I purchase them in the summer time, and freeze them (without their shells, and without washing them) for the rest of the year. I might add the the right type of green beans is the flat one and that no one uses kale. As for the pesto, it is only made with basil - no parsley here.

I made the soup and it was delicious. The changes were substituting lima beans for fava beans and using 1/2 chicken broth/water. The recipe made more than enough for 4-6 people, at least 8-10 as a main dish. I served it with Sam Sifton's Chicken-Liver Pate on crusty bread. No room for anything else. 45 minutes is not an accurate time. With the rinsing, peeling, paring and chopping the vegetables, and returning to boiling at each step, it took me 80 minutes from start to finish.

WK, when a vegetable soup or stew is bland, it can often be perked up with a splash of sherry vinegar added in the last few minutes. Another thing to try (albeit not at all traditional, and only if you have access to sweet, garden-fresh leaves) is adding a chiffonade of fresh, young collard greens. They add a rich meatiness to a mimestrone-type soup like this.

We made it tonight and we're very happy AFTER adding a splash of champagne vinegar. It needed a little acid to shine.

It seems a bit disingenuous to refer to this particular recipe as a seasonal favorite particularly that of a Spring specialty. Several important ingredients are unlikely to be available concurrently, unless they do a fair bit of traveling to arrive at that farmer's market.
It seems to me that this is a dish that is more one of inspiration rather than one of recipe. It is most certainly a selection for mid-summer and certainly not spring.
Improvisation is the key to this dish.

I loved this for its basic concept, but I began with a desire to use fresh turnips and turnip greens and whatever I had on hand, so inevitably many ingredients changed. The pistou was delicious, but I used dried instead of fresh basil, same for thyme in the soup. Instead of potatoes, I used turnips. I didn't use leeks, squash, beans or kale, substituting onion, mushrooms, cauliflower, peas and turnip greens. Thick egg noodles instead of pasta shells gave it a nice texture. Recipes inspire!

I made this using half chicken stock, half water. I left out the fava beans and green beans, but added celery root. I used store bought pesto (with all the same ingredients I would use), and still, it was somewhat bland. I was worried the store-bought pesto would add too much salt, so I didn't add that much to the soup prior to adding the pesto. Maybe next time I'll add a parmesan rind to the simmering broth; that usually adds to the savoriness.

In step 3, cooked the potatoes along with the aromatics for approx. 10 minutes, then added water -- makes for a more flavorful, fuller-bodied broth. Didn't have fresh fava, used peas instead; and malloreddus pasta instead of shells. Really tasty, will make often. It takes longer than 45 minutes, but worth the effort.

It's really inaccurate to translate the french word "pistou" by "pesto"! Pistou and Pesto are two different things ! And this recipe uses neither one nor the other. Pistou is traditionally made with basil, garlic, olive oil and salt that's all. Adding a diced tomato is acceptable but neither cheese nor parsley would be added in this Provençal dish. On top of the ingredients for Pistou, Pesto contains pine nuts, Parmigiano and Pecorino cheese.

Needs a squeeze of lemon juice at the end to brighten the flavours

Step 3 says, "stir in remaining vegetables". I think favas are considered a vegetable. ;)

It's from Provence. I live somewhat in the area, and these ingredients currently are available at both my market and farmer's market. Improvisation certainly is key, though.