St. Patrick's Day Potato Soup With Pesto

Olha's Note:

This luxurious, silky smooth potato soup showcases a brilliant emerald mound of pesto floating on the surface -- perfect for St. Patrick's Day dinners. Make the pesto ahead of time. If you can't obtain enough fresh basil, look for a good quality jarred pesto for this recipe. Crème fraiche is often available at a good cheesemonger or in some specialty food shops. You can easily make your own, though. Serve this soup with thin slices of toasted baguettes.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

FOR THE PESTO

• 1 large garlic clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons pine nuts or 1 1/2 tablespoons walnuts
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
• 1 cup creme fraiche
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

CREME FRAICHE

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk or 2 tablespoons sour cream

FOR THE SOUP

• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1 medium leek, rinsed, chopped (white part only)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, trimmed, chopped
• 3 large baking potatoes, peeled, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. TO MAKE THE CRÈME FRAICHE: gently warm the heavy cream. Remove it from the heat and combine it with the buttermilk or sour cream in a glass bowl. Mix well, cover and let stand at room temperature overnight. Give the mixture a good stir once it has thickened, then cover and refrigerate. It will thicken even more once chilled.
2. TO MAKE THE PESTO: crush the garlic with the salt and place the mixture in a blender or food processor along with the basil, olive oil and nuts. Blend until the ingredients are finely pureed. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the basil mixture into a small mixing bowl. Fold in the grated cheese and blend well. Carefully stir in the crème fraiche. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
3. FOR THE SOUP: melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic, bay leaf, thyme, leek, onion and celery and cook gently, reducing the heat after a minute or two, until the vegetables are quite tender, about 5 minutes. Do not allow them to brown at all. Add the potatoes, chicken broth and cream. If the potatoes aren't totally submerged in the liquid, add a little water. Simmer the mixture for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through and tender. Puree the potato mixture using a hand held blender or a blender or food processor. Stir in the buttermilk. Wipe the saucepan clean and pour the pureed soup through a fine sieve back into the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup while it is still very hot into soup bowls and place a good dollop of pest in the centre of each serving. Run a toothpick through the pest to drag it out decoratively over the surface of the soup.
4. Great Potatoes.Kathleen Sloan-McIntosh.

Reviews

[futbol4me]

Wonderful soup! my wife will accept nothing less than this becoming a staple during the winter!

[Thorsten]

A lovely soup and very easy to make, if you have Creme Fraiche and a good Pesto at hand (as I always have). The soup is put together in seconds. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I omit the step of sieving the soup. You can control "thickness" very easily. I like my potato soup "very thick", but you can thin it by adding a bit of chicken broth. Thanks for sharing.