Winter's roots (or edible memories)

Recipes: Cream of root vegetable soup, Panini 

I stand in my kitchen at home, lost in a memory of Malpensa airport, near Milan, Italy. Rows of panini beckon through a glass case in an airport cafe, waiting to be chosen. Prosciutto and mozzarella, Signora? Tomato and pesto with Parmigiana? Eggplant and roasted red bell pepper? Si grazie! Tutti! Yes, thanks! All of them!

Every Monday night I make dinner for my friend Jackie, and she brings a nice bottle of red wine. We spend the evening sipping wine, eating, and talking. It's a lovely start to the week. We originally began our Monday dinners as a time to study Italian together, many years ago. Now we are taking a break from Italian, although we plan to go back to it. Meanwhile the dinners and the friendship continue.

This Monday I have already planned to try a root vegetable soup recipe I got online from Cook's Illustrated. It uses seasonal veggies, and sounds both healthy and delicious, but what should I serve with it? I am momentarily tired of sausage, which seems an obvious choice. A salad would be good in summer, but this is winter and perhaps something a little more substantial is needed. That's when the rows of panini enter my head. A crisp panini - perfect with smooth creamy soup.

Luckily I have recently scored a fabulous, used-but-in-perfect-condition, All-Clad panini press for $20 at The White Elephant Sale, a benefit put on by our local Oakland Museum of California. Time to give it a whirl, but first, of course, the soup.

Exceptionally Good Cream of Root Vegetable Soup

Chopped ingredients for Root Vegetable Soup

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium parsnip, peeled and chopped
• 1 leek, white and light green parts only, washed thoroughly, halved lengthwise, and sliced thin
• 1 small celery rib, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 small to medium russet potato (6 to 8 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth, to make the soup vegetarian)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the carrot, parsnip, leek, celery, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and cook until browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the potato and cook, stirring constantly, until the starch begins to release and the vegetables begin to stick together, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the broth and the bay leaf and bring it to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaf and let the soup cool a bit.

Working in batches, process the soup in a blender until smooth, or use an immersion blender to process it right in the pot. Return the soup to the pot, if necessary, and stir in the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If you need to reheat before serving, do it very gently over low heat, stirring.

The soup can be refrigerated for 2 days and reheated very gently.

Now the panini. Here's my lovely "new" panini press. I like it because it doesn't smash the sandwiches like my other press did. The top of the other one, which was electric, was on hinges, so when you put the top down and latched it, it pressed the sandwich almost to nothing. You heat this one on top of the stove, and then you put the sandwich on the hot bottom and press the hot top however much you want on the top of the sandwich. Perfetto!

If you don't have a panini press, no problem. You can improvise one. Heat a no-stick or well-seasoned cast iron frying pan or griddle for the bottom. Heat another, maybe smaller, frying pan with a flat bottom (cast iron would be good) for the top. Place sandwich on bottom, put bottom of second hot frying pan on top of sandwich (use a hot pad to pick it up, obviously), and press as much as you want.

Panini

Buy a thin sweet baguette and cut two 6-inch sections from it.  Split the sections lengthwise to make panini rolls.

For this dinner, I made ham and smoked turkey panini with fresh mozzarella and pesto to go with my root vegetable soup, so I'll give you the instructions for that. You can be creative with your own panini.

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F.

For each sandwich: Spread the top half of the roll with pesto. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil on the bottom half, and layer it with one thin slice of ham (Parma or otherwise), folded to fit, and one thin slice of smoked turkey, folded to fit. Lay two thin slices of fresh mozzarella on top of the meat and top with the roll top.

Put the sandwiches in a baking dish in the preheated oven while you heat your press, improvised or not. When the press is hot, put the sandwiches on it one at a time and press them down gently. Grill for about two minutes, until the outside is crisp and the cheese is soft and melty. Put the grilled panino back in the oven to stay warm while you reheat the press and grill the second one.

Serve immediately, when they are done, on a small plate next to a bowl of the hot soup. Wonderful for munching and dipping.  Buon appetito!

The Payoff
Parsnips contain antioxidants essential for fighting inflammation, cancer, and fungus.(!) They also are high in fiber, which is good for preventing constipation and reducing high blood pressure. They are sweet and delicious, like the carrots.
Carrots help maintain good vision (Vitamin A), among other things, like tasting good.
Celery is low-calorie and high-fiber, which is good for you in much the same way as the fiber in parsnips.

The Root Vegetable Soup is gluten-free. It is also vegetarian if you use vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock.

Panini can be made gluten-free by using a GF roll instead of the sweet baguette. Instructions for grilling remain the same.

Panini can be made vegetarian by filling them with cheeses, roasted eggplant, roasted red bell peppers, greens (raw or sauteed), sauteed mushrooms, artichoke hearts, or any of a large combination of delicious non-meat options. I would recommend using no more than three items as filling. Pesto can be used as a spread, as we did in the panini above. Other interesting possibilities are a flavorful mustard, hummus, or any bean spread. Instructions for grilling remain the same.