it was a quick ‘let’s have lunch’ decision.  and i thought perfect.  zucchini pear soup - a bittman recipe that sounded intriguing from last week’s dining section in the ny times.  and then i immediately thought imperfect.  no pears.  damnit.  i had just bought pears but now they were gone.  i had honeycrisps but that wasn’t going to cut it.  so faced with yet another produce quandary, i switched gears.

i opened the fridge, grabbed a red bell pepper and two big zucchini’s and proceeded to make it all up as i went along.  sometimes this tactic works better than other times, but soup can be pretty forgiving.  it’s hard to destroy a soup.

so first i sauteed about 4 diced shallots in olive oil.  anthony bourdain claims that if you just use shallots more often, forgoing the lowly onion, your food will taste better.  probably had i substituted butter for olive oil the result would have tasted better still.  but i wanted a cleaner vibe to this soup – a heart happier, less french, more italian soup.  then i added about 4 cloves worth of chopped garlic, followed by oregano and all the diced zucchini.  when the vegetables had softened i added boxed organic chicken broth (so sue me) and let it simmer.  from there it hit the blender and then the fun began.

i charred the red bell pepper over the gas flame of my stove and then peeled, seeded and thinly sliced the flesh.  but now i must take a sec and tell you about one of my top 3 favorite olives cured with lemon and rosemary.  they are HAAMAZING.  easy entertaining with michael chiarello…  come on – you know what i’m talking about.  do you get the catalog too?  i do.  don’t you just wanna live in napa and hang out with michael, with his ever so appealing boy next door thing goin’ on and drink the zin from his vineyard and eat all the perfect produce from his garden and sit around the table with his other friends – you being his best – and eat all those great ‘easy entertaining’ meals? i do.  in the meantime though i suggest that you breath deep, pay the shipping fee and then delight in these olive’s deliciousness.  cause i’m here to say that i’ve eaten a ton of olives in my years and these rocked my world.  but that’s just me.  ok, last step was to chop some basil and then it was all about making it look like something other then flecked greenish sludge.  so i channeled my inner ‘iron chef’ and this was the end result.

we cut a slice of bread and slathered it with the last of the thick smokey tomato sauce.  the soup was wonderful AND i made it up all by my lonesome. 

i think bittman would’ve been impressed, if only just a little.