Butternut soup with Rosemary and Pine Nut Bread

I have been making butternut soup for years. YEARS. I have a tried and tested recipe.

This, ladies and gentlemen, may have to become my new go to butternut soup recipe. It is THAT GOOD.

It is accompanied by Rosemary and Pine Nut bread. This is also completely amazing. Here, look:

NOM.

So, you make the bread as follows:

Mix 15g dried yeast with 300ml warm water and a pinch of sugar. Blend. (I expect you could do this part however you normally would when making bread (in my case, throw the yeast in with the flour) but I was following the recipe out of curiousity, so I did it this way.) Leave for ten minutes to get all frothy.

Mix in a bowl 450g flour, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of chopped rosemary. (In the absence of fresh rosemary, I used the dry stuff.) Make a well in the centre, and pour in the yeast mixture and about 45ml olive oil. Mix to a soft dough. Knead for at least five minutes. Add 50g pine nuts. (I used 70g because that was the size packet they came in, to no apparent ill-effect.) Knead until the pine nuts are incorporated into the dough. Leave to rise for 40 mins. (Cover bowl with damp cloth)

Bash it back, then shape the dough into whatever shape you want. As you can see from the picture, I went for the "pull off roll sized bits for soup" shape. But whatever floats your boat. Brush with olive oil. Leave to rise for another 20 mins, then stick in a 220C oven for 40 minutes.

This bread is so tasty. Yum.

Okay, now the soup.

Peel and chop up a butternut, a potato and a carrot. I left out the carrot, because we didn't have any. Also an onion.

Melt 25g of butter in a large saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Throw in the onion, and some bacon. The recipe says: "125g best-quality smoked bacon, derinded and finely chopped". I used what we had in our fridge. I don't know how much it was, but I did chop it fine.

Cook till the onion starts softening, then throw in the butternut, potato and carrot (if you use the carrot) along with half a teaspoon of chopped marjoram. This I did have fresh, and I used significantly more than half a teaspoon, cos that's how I roll.

Cook for five mins.

Add 750ml chicken stock, some Tabasco sauce (how much depends on your taste, really - I like it SPICY, so I put in more than the recipe asked), a pinch of nutmeg, and some salt and pepper. Give it a stir, bang a lid on and cook it until the butternut is soft. About half an hour to 40 minutes.

Let it cool a bit, then puree it. Add a cup of cream. (We didn't have a cup of cream, we had less, so I put in what we had.)

Serve with the bread.

Seriously, guys, this soup is SO good. The sweetness of the butternut perfectly compliments the smoky bacon undertones, and the bite of the tabasco. OMIGOD. So delicious. I'll be having it for lunch today too!! And the bread is gorgeous too.

HIGHLY recommended. And EASY!

Ratings:
Weren't you paying attention?
Thumbs up all round. :)