Ladies and gentlemen… Soup season is upon us!
Colder, dreary, gray days are brighter and cozier with a scratch made soup warming on the stove top.
Last weekend was a prime example: the weather was mean. It was windy. Brutally cold for the first weekend of October. And apparently, Chicago even saw snow…!
Miserable? Kinda… Okay, yes. But, a perfect weekend for soup.
And I hit it kind of hard.
I had soup for every meal (besides breakfast…) from Friday dinner to Monday lunch. There was a tomato soup that I had canned a few weeks ago with the garden tomatoes. A trip to Panera where I settled on black bean soup because they were out of broccoli cheddar and chicken noodle soup. (Apparently I wasn’t the only one with soup on the mind…) Adam even got on board with the desire for soup and made a chicken gumbo straight out of this months Bon Appetit using the garden’s carrots, celery and herbs.
Side Note: The gumbo was fab. Pick up a copy today. The tailgating story the recipe was a part of was so neat and made both Adam and I kind of wish we had gone to school in the south. Not that we don’t love our Boilers… but… yeah. It looked pretty fun.
As I was out by the herbs snipping a few sprigs of thyme for Adam’s gumbo, I also snipped a tall sprig of rosemary.
My rosemary has done amazingly well in comparison to last year. This time last year I had given up on it. But, this year, I am considering bringing my container of rosemary inside when the temperature dips below freezing to see if it will continue to grow throughout the winter.
I fanned the sprig of rosemary by my nose.
It’s piney scent reminded me instantly of Christmas. Some say that rosemary’s scent is good for your memory and if that’s true I don’t find it ironic at all that it transports my memory to Christmas time.
My mom was good about making gifts for the neighbors, family friends, people at church and our teachers at Christmas time. Some years it was cookies, others maybe candies and gourmet coffee grounds. But, one year in early high school, she made loaves upon loaves of rosemary focaccia bread. It smelled like I was walking into the freshest bakery every time I came home that December.
And, not only did the bread smell great, it tasted great too. Mom would, of course, also make plenty of loaves for the family and freeze them. They would be brought out throughout the winter on Sunday afternoons when she would make soup for lunch and it was awesome because it would feel like Panera in my own home.
As I ran my fingers along the piney leaves of the sprig I decided that it was time to make my rosemary parmesan focaccia.
(Plus, I was due for something other than soup…)
Every winter, by January, I have this recipe memorized. But, since I hadn’t made it for about six months, I was a little rusty and had to dig the recipe out of the archives.
It’s a little labor intensive (just a little, I promise) and isn’t something you can make quickly, but it is absolutely perfect for a Sunday afternoon as a soup simmers on the stove top or in the crock pot.
The recipe also makes a lot of dough so I typically make two loaves and it freezes great. So, it is good for a crowd… or for saving for the next Sunday when you want to be a little lazy.
- 1 3/4 cup warm water
- 1 package dry active yeast
- 1 TBS sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1 TBS salt, plus more for adding to top
- 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for lining bowl and topping
- 3 TBS fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- Freshly cracked black pepper for adding to top
- In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar into the warm water. Add the package of yeast and lightly stir with a wooden spoon. Set aside until the yeast is foamy. This will take at least fifteen minutes.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook bowl, combine the flours, salt, oil and yeast mixture.
- Mix until ingredients just come together.
- Once the dough forms a ball and pulls from the sides of the bowl, increase the mixer's speed to medium and knead for about ten minutes. The dough should be smooth. If it is too wet, add a little flour. Too dry, add a bit of water.
- Transfer the ball of dough to a slightly floured surface and knead a couple times by hand.
- Coat the inside of the mixing bowl with oil and put the ball of dough into the greased bowl, turning it to coat the dough with oil.
- Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it doubles in size. This will take about an hour.
- After an hour, prepare a pan (I divide the dough and use two round cake pans but you could use a jelly roll pan) with a little oil and spread dough out in the pans using your hands.
- Once dough is fitted to the pan(s), poke holes throughout the top using your fingers.
- Cover pan(s) with plastic wrap or a slightly damp towel and let rise for another hour.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Top the bread with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle on chopped rosemary and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
- Bake about thirty minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Rotate the pans halfway through to ensure even browning.
- Let bread rest twenty minutes after removing from oven.
- Cut and serve or store in a container or wrapped in foil for about a week. To freeze, wrap tightly in foil after completely cooling and use within three months.
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your website. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Exceptional work!