I picked up this cookbook at a used bookstore in Raleigh because it looks like a comic book. That’s literally the only reason why.
What I didn’t realize until the day I made the first recipe, though, is that it’s a book I should have been referencing all along. My commute is 40+ miles each way, so oftentimes, when I get home at the end of the day, I’m not into cooking. When I pulled this book out one evening, though, I realized it was all easy recipes and, at least in this case, I already had all the ingredients in my kitchen. Win/win!
A note I’ll make here is that this is a recipe that I modified the crap out of. Very, very, very rarely will I post a recipe I followed to a T; generally when I do follow it exactly, it’s a dessert recipe. I’m better with winging it on non-dessert, non-baked items.
I wonder occasionally if I should make more of an effort on these posts to note that no, this isn’t the exact recipe from the book — it’s got some variations. Does it matter? Do you care?
As I mentioned, and as you can see above, I made a lot of changes to this one. One of the biggest things is that it called for jarred garlic and frozen onions, and I don’t generally use either one of those things. Other changes include adding red pepper flakes, using diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes (and using something like Rotel for half of that), and excluding bacon.
…
Yes, I said I excluded bacon. It didn’t need it, I didn’t have it, and I had the bacon grease to use for cooking the veggies anyway.
What are your thoughts, both on this soup and on changes in recipes posted?
Italian Tomato and White Bean Soup
Makes 3-4 servings
Adapted from Recipes to the Rescue: Thrilling Kitchen Adventures…Just in the Nick of Time
