Serving size: Serves 8
Cuisine type: Italian
Cooking time: Less than 60 minutes
Course: Main
Favourite flavours: Easy recipes, Soup

Australian House & Garden recipe for pea soup with pancetta, anelli and soffrito.

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
125g pancetta, cut into pea-sized pieces
1 cup (250ml) chicken stock, preferably homemade
500g dried anelli or risoni
750g peas, shelled fresh or frozen

Soffrito
1 red onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
Handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus a handful extra
Small handful basil leaves, chopped, plus a small handful extra

METHOD

1 Heat oil over moderate heat in a large saucepan; add pancetta and sauté 2mins. Add all soffrito ingredients and sauté, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10mins. Season, add stock and simmer 15mins.
Stir in peas and cook until just heated through.

2 Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking water, then add pasta to the pea mixture, adding reserved cooking water to moisten. Stir in extra parsley and basil just before serving.

Recipes extracted from Pasta Rustica by Loukie Werle ($35, Penny Pig). Available from www.loukie.com.au and bookstores.