Food: Soup... Italian Style

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Food: Soup... Italian Style

4:00 AM |

Dana Kaplan, Stresa Sights |

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Allora, we were in a restaurant, and I was talking with the chef about the soups on the menu. It’s cold days now, and I love soup. But I discovered in Italy, it was a bit more complicated than just soup. It seems I like... well.. here's how he described Italian soups to me:

Me: What's this one then?

Him: It’s just a broth, a brodo.

Me: Well, the brodo sounds delicious. And would be even better if it had some vegetables in it.

Him: That would be a good idea, but then it wouldn’t be a brodo anymore.

Me: No?

Him: Nope. Then it would be a minestra.

A brodo with vegetables is a minestra.

And a brodo with pasta in it becomes a pastina.

Pastina is pasta inside of brodo.

Me: I see…

I’d call them all soup. Just soup.

Me: I like when my soup is full of things. More like a stew actually… Like if you took a stew and added more liquid, drop by drop, until it crosses some line of liquid-ness where it is a soup and not a stew, that’s what I like. With a nice crusty bread...

Him: Capisco, but if there is stuff like bread in the broth or the minestra, then it is zuppa.

Me: Si, soup.

Him: Nope. Zuppa.

Me: All soup. Just soup. Soup.

Me: You know what I like? Bisque, I love bisque. That has a different name too.. not soup.

Him: Hmm. What is it?

Me: It’s soup.

Him: What kind?

Me: It is quite thick, and cream-based,

Him: Oh, ok! Then it’s the passato here on the menu! Like a zuppa, but thick with cream and things in it.

Me: Si, and it is usually made with seafood things… lobster bisque per esempio. Or shrimp or crab bisque. What you do is blend it all very smooth so that…

Him: Wait , wait… If you blend it, then it is not a passato. Then it’s the vellutata. It means velvet.

Me: Vellutata. Ok, well, I love vellutata, and that's a perfect name for it. We sometimes put small pieces of bread or crackers in it...

Him: Don’t put too many. Or it will become a zuppa again.

Me: Of course. Foolish of me.

Him: The word is from inzuppare… to put things in liquid to absorb. That’s where zuppa comes from.

Me: Well cat my dog…I always thought zuppa meant soup.

Zuppa.

Zupp.

Zoop.

Soup.

And here, to clarify the subject, are some photos I found to illustrate the different types of Italian soups: