When I get five requests after a weekend to share the recipe for one or another dish, I know it was a hit. And this one came together out of a combination of some things I had the week before that I wanted to use up, and a little internet sleuthing for ideas. What we ended up with turned into one of those soups that just hit all the right notes, and so I immediately put it on the next week’s menu. Strike while the iron kettle is hot and all that….

So, the things sitting around were a couple of potatoes, some butternut squash, and some corn… kind of perfect for almost any season. Down here, it’s end of spring, but I could see this in fall as well.

The first thing I did was roast the corn. I left it in the husk, turned the oven to maximum, and stuck three ears of corn on the rack and let them cook for about 35-40 minutes – the husk will basically burn, but it will protect the corn inside, which comes out with a beautiful roasted flavor. You could also do this on a grill! Then I let them cool, peeled off the husks, and sliced the corn kernels off and set them aside. I took the cobs, which also have a great flavor, and threw them in a pot of water and simmered them away for about half an hour, to get a lovely roasted corn flavored stock.

I chopped up a large yellow onion, three leeks, and minced three cloves of garlic, and sauteed them in a little olive oil in the pot with some salt and a little white pepper. When they were soft, and starting to color, I added in a large diced potato, and about double that amount of diced squash. I topped it off with the corn stock, and let it simmer for about ten minutes. Then I added in the corn, and some pickled chili peppers – I used a whole jar (100gm, or about 3oz) of them, liquid and all. Let it cook another ten minutes, the vegetables are all cooked through, the soup has a great flavor. I adjusted the seasoning with a little more salt and white pepper, and added some chopped parsley.

Now, in experimenting, I’d used store-bought ricotta, but I wanted to use fresh for the Casa S dinners, so, I made a batch of ricotta. Those of you who’ve been with me throughout this journey will remember I took a whole cheesemaking course way back… wow, 12 years ago now! I drained the ricotta well and then added some chopped parsley and chives, and a little salt to it, and just added a good dollop on top of the soup.

Let’s just say “yum” and hey, go out there and make soup!