Supper Club First Course - Spanish Tomato Soup, Olive & Anchovy Bites, Rustic Italian Bread, Sangria
Here are the recipes for the first course of the Supper Club meal we hosted on Saturday.
Spanish Tomato Soup
Serves 4
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 green bell pepper, chopped
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 pound tomatoes, chopped
8 ounces French bread, cubed.
4 cups vegetable stock
[1] Chop the onion and green peppers. Peel and crush the garlic cloves. Chop the tomatos.
[2] Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. saute the onion, garlic and green peppers for 2-3 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.
[3] Add the chili powder and tomatos to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until the mixture had thickened. This took 3-4 minutes.
[4] Mix in the bread and soup stock. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the soup is thick.
[5] Keep on low heat until served.
I made four batches of this soup to feed the 14 attendees. Everyone got a large bowl, and we had four or five bowls remaining at the end of the night. All four batches were made simultaneously in two large pots. I sauteed everything in one pot, then split the vegetables to two pots after step [2]. I used about 2/3 of a large loaf of Rustic Italian Bread.
The soup was the only part of the meal that was plated in the kitchen, with sparklie_lady doing most of the serving. Commentary seemed to be generally favorable, with a number of people commenting that it had a very savory flavor. There certainly wasn't any left in the bowls at the end of the course.
The original recipe, as found by xhollydayx on page 50 of Super Cookery: Potatoes and Vegetables, included garlic bread croutons. We skipped that part in favor of our next item.
Olive & Anchovy Bites
Makes 40 to 45
1 cup All Purpose Flour
½ cup butter, chilled
1 cup finally grated cheese (Manchego, Cheddar, Gruyere)
2 ounce can anchovy fillets in oil, drained and chopped
½ cup pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sea salt
This is the first of eight recipes that came from the Silvana Franco penned Tapas volume of the Creative Cooking Library.
[1] Place the flour, butter, cheese, anchovies, olives and cayenne pepper in a food processor or blender and pulse until the mixture forms a firm dough.
[2] Wrap the dough loosely in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
[3] Preheat the oven to 400 Degrees.
[4] Roll out the dough thinly on a lightly floured surface.
[5] Cut the dough into 2 inch wide strips, then cut across each strip diagonally in alternate directions to make small triangles.
[6] Transfer the triangles to baking sheets and bake 8-10 minutes until golden.
[7] Cool on a wire rack. Dust with sea salt before serving.
We used manchego cheese; just over 1/4 pound of it seemed to be the right amount. In lieu of a food processor we tossed everything into the kitchen aid mixer, which has the added benefit of being the manliest cooking gadget I own. The trickiest bit was rolling them out. I think triangles are a lot of work, and it's not like they taste better because of geometry, so next time I think I'll try squares. One batch filled three cookie sheets, although I was intentionally making them on the small side.
We made a test run of these a few months back. inastateofhope tried one when they were fresh out of the oven despite her avowals of distaste for anchovies. A few minutes later she asked for another one. She ended up eating a dozen that night and taking more home in a container for later.
I prepared these on the Wednesday night prior to supper club. After they cooled off we stashed them in fridge inside a sealed tupperware. According to the cookbook they also freeze very well. Personally, I feel that the anchovies provide more than enough salty flavor and that the sea salt is just overkill so I didn't add that.
These didn't disappear quite as quickly as I thought they would. Although I thought that the saltiness complemented the soup flavor very well, there were definitely a few left at the end of the course. Perhaps it was because they weren't hot out of the oven? In any event, we left them on the table and they were all gone by the end of the meal.
Rustic Italian Bread
I knew that we had a number of dishes on the menu that would need to bread to sop up the juices, so I preordered three loaves of Rustic Italian bread from Michelle's Bakery at the West Side Market. These were very sizable loaves; in a normal week xhollydayx don't finish an entire loaf unless we do sandwiches every day. These ones had been baked on Friday, so they weren't hot from the oven, but they were more than adequately fresh for our purposes. Most of one loaf went into the Spanish Tomato Soup. The remains of that loaf and almost all of a second were put on the table during the first course and eaten throughout the meal. I saw people grabbing bread and eating it sans topping, which is always a good sign.
Michelle's Bakery is my favorite bakery stand. I go there nearly every weekend, to the point that when I called them to make a special order they recognized my voice, which I find a tad disturbing as I had never called them before. In any event, I didn't have time to bake my own bread and this probably came out much better than mine would have anyway.
Sangria
2 Big Ass Jars Carlos Rossi Sangria
3 oranges
3 apples
1 container strawberries
How could we have Tapas on a lovely Memorial Day weekend without at least a few (dozen) glasses of sangria? I bought 2 of the discount sized Carlos Rossi (official motto: quantity has a quality all its own) Sangria jars, poured it into smaller containers and added fresh fruit. It was properly chilled and served with ice with the first course. The ice was because people insisted, not because I remembered, but based on our consumption level the lack of ice was not a concern. We killed 1 2/3 jars of sangria over the course of the meal, in addition to the six other bottles of wine that we served later on. This may explain why everyone had such a good time.
Tomorrow: Frozen Berry Salad.
Spanish Tomato Soup
Serves 4
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 green bell pepper, chopped
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 pound tomatoes, chopped
8 ounces French bread, cubed.
4 cups vegetable stock
[1] Chop the onion and green peppers. Peel and crush the garlic cloves. Chop the tomatos.
[2] Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. saute the onion, garlic and green peppers for 2-3 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent.
[3] Add the chili powder and tomatos to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until the mixture had thickened. This took 3-4 minutes.
[4] Mix in the bread and soup stock. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the soup is thick.
[5] Keep on low heat until served.
I made four batches of this soup to feed the 14 attendees. Everyone got a large bowl, and we had four or five bowls remaining at the end of the night. All four batches were made simultaneously in two large pots. I sauteed everything in one pot, then split the vegetables to two pots after step [2]. I used about 2/3 of a large loaf of Rustic Italian Bread.
The soup was the only part of the meal that was plated in the kitchen, with sparklie_lady doing most of the serving. Commentary seemed to be generally favorable, with a number of people commenting that it had a very savory flavor. There certainly wasn't any left in the bowls at the end of the course.
The original recipe, as found by xhollydayx on page 50 of Super Cookery: Potatoes and Vegetables, included garlic bread croutons. We skipped that part in favor of our next item.
Olive & Anchovy Bites
Makes 40 to 45
1 cup All Purpose Flour
½ cup butter, chilled
1 cup finally grated cheese (Manchego, Cheddar, Gruyere)
2 ounce can anchovy fillets in oil, drained and chopped
½ cup pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sea salt
This is the first of eight recipes that came from the Silvana Franco penned Tapas volume of the Creative Cooking Library.
[1] Place the flour, butter, cheese, anchovies, olives and cayenne pepper in a food processor or blender and pulse until the mixture forms a firm dough.
[2] Wrap the dough loosely in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
[3] Preheat the oven to 400 Degrees.
[4] Roll out the dough thinly on a lightly floured surface.
[5] Cut the dough into 2 inch wide strips, then cut across each strip diagonally in alternate directions to make small triangles.
[6] Transfer the triangles to baking sheets and bake 8-10 minutes until golden.
[7] Cool on a wire rack. Dust with sea salt before serving.
We used manchego cheese; just over 1/4 pound of it seemed to be the right amount. In lieu of a food processor we tossed everything into the kitchen aid mixer, which has the added benefit of being the manliest cooking gadget I own. The trickiest bit was rolling them out. I think triangles are a lot of work, and it's not like they taste better because of geometry, so next time I think I'll try squares. One batch filled three cookie sheets, although I was intentionally making them on the small side.
We made a test run of these a few months back. inastateofhope tried one when they were fresh out of the oven despite her avowals of distaste for anchovies. A few minutes later she asked for another one. She ended up eating a dozen that night and taking more home in a container for later.
I prepared these on the Wednesday night prior to supper club. After they cooled off we stashed them in fridge inside a sealed tupperware. According to the cookbook they also freeze very well. Personally, I feel that the anchovies provide more than enough salty flavor and that the sea salt is just overkill so I didn't add that.
These didn't disappear quite as quickly as I thought they would. Although I thought that the saltiness complemented the soup flavor very well, there were definitely a few left at the end of the course. Perhaps it was because they weren't hot out of the oven? In any event, we left them on the table and they were all gone by the end of the meal.
Rustic Italian Bread
I knew that we had a number of dishes on the menu that would need to bread to sop up the juices, so I preordered three loaves of Rustic Italian bread from Michelle's Bakery at the West Side Market. These were very sizable loaves; in a normal week xhollydayx don't finish an entire loaf unless we do sandwiches every day. These ones had been baked on Friday, so they weren't hot from the oven, but they were more than adequately fresh for our purposes. Most of one loaf went into the Spanish Tomato Soup. The remains of that loaf and almost all of a second were put on the table during the first course and eaten throughout the meal. I saw people grabbing bread and eating it sans topping, which is always a good sign.
Michelle's Bakery is my favorite bakery stand. I go there nearly every weekend, to the point that when I called them to make a special order they recognized my voice, which I find a tad disturbing as I had never called them before. In any event, I didn't have time to bake my own bread and this probably came out much better than mine would have anyway.
Sangria
2 Big Ass Jars Carlos Rossi Sangria
3 oranges
3 apples
1 container strawberries
How could we have Tapas on a lovely Memorial Day weekend without at least a few (dozen) glasses of sangria? I bought 2 of the discount sized Carlos Rossi (official motto: quantity has a quality all its own) Sangria jars, poured it into smaller containers and added fresh fruit. It was properly chilled and served with ice with the first course. The ice was because people insisted, not because I remembered, but based on our consumption level the lack of ice was not a concern. We killed 1 2/3 jars of sangria over the course of the meal, in addition to the six other bottles of wine that we served later on. This may explain why everyone had such a good time.
Tomorrow: Frozen Berry Salad.