Memories and Reminders - Turkey, Bean and Pasta Soup

Yep, I went back to Rachael Ray's Hearty and Healthy 3 bean minestrone.  But this time I used ground turkey :)

Today's Players

To recap for those viewers at home today's players are 2 cartons store bought chicken stock (16 oz each), 4 carrots, 4 stalks of celery, 2 onions  ( 1 chopped and 1 quartered),  6-8 bulbs of garlic, 12 tomatoes, 1 15-oz can each garbanzo, kidney, and cannellini beans, 2 rinds of parmesan cheese, sprigs/stalks of parsley, rosemary, and thyme (darn.  all  I need is sage I can sing that song....fooey), 1 lb fresh ground turkey, and 4 slices of prosciutto.


Somehow this time I managed to use only 2 burners and the oven and I am NOT complaining!

Since the stock has to simmer for one hour before you can add it to the soup, I set that up first in my brand new 12-qt stock pot.  In went the 2 cartons of chicken stock - 8 cups total....to that I added 4 cups of water.  Then went the "fortifying" ingredients: 2 carrots cut in half; 2 celery stalks cut in half, 2 rinds of parmesan cheese and the peel from 1 lemon (he was camera shy so isn't pictured above), and 2 stalks each parsley, rosemary, and thyme tied together in a bundle.  Simmer for 1 hour - timer set.

Next are the tomatoes since they need to roast for abt 30 minutes. This is where the memory part comes in - as I am picking the tomatoes off the vines, I flash back to being 8 years old at my grandmothers house and picking fresh tomatoes off her plants -there is no other smell like it. Stickers removed, rinsed off, and into my roasting pan they go along with the cloves of garlic.  Pour some olive oil over the lot and then sprinkle salt and pepper.   Toss it altogether and put it in the 500 degree oven.

We now come to the meat and beans portion of this blog.  Give the bottom of your pot or dutch oven a couple of "turns" of extra virgin olive oil and heat for a little bit.  Add the prosciutto and heat for a couple of minutes.  Next in goes the chopped onion.  Once that is soft, add the turkey, breaking the pieces with a wooden spoon until the chunks are no about the size of a kidney bean.  After the turkey is browned, add the chopped carrot and chopped celery and cover 10 minutes to let the vegetables sweat......Here's where the reminder portion comes in.....

As I am draining the beans the smoke detector goes off.....I check the stock pot...nothing...nothing in the soup pot either....so I turn on the fan and go open the front door to the house (the smoke detector is 4 feet from the door) and start moving the door back and forth to get the air moving...*whew* the beeping stops ....as I am doing this I look into the kitchen...there is a very visible "smoke" coming from the oven....so I rush over and turn the oven off - there was only 3 minutes left and the tomatoes had already split.  In my absence from wafting the "smoke" out the front door....the beeping starts again....for the next oh I don't know 30+ minutes I am dashing between opening windows..mixing ingredients .....back to the door movement....turning on ceiling fans... checking back to the door movement....and finally the incessant beeping stops.....to be replaced by the occasional "Hey you idiot!  My battery is low!" beep.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, draining beans....add the beans to the soup pot and stir.  Once mixed, start ladling in the stock.  Don't forget the tomatoes.  Remove them from the oven and mash them gently before adding to the soup pot.  I don't like skins in my soup, so I removed the skins before mashing....I'm also not fond of seeds in my soup, so I did my best to pull the tomato meat off and leave the seeds behind. Stir the whole kit-and-kaboodle and bring to a simmer.  Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes and then turn off.  Make sure to let it cool completely before putting it in the fridge.

Why the fridge you ask?  Because I finished this at 6:30 and my husband lets me know he is in fact going over to a friend's house when he told me 30 minutes ago he wasn't.  That's fine.  I didn't feel like standing up any longer to cook the pasta anyway......

To be continued.......