Zuppa Molise

Nothing new to say about cheese this week, but tonight for dinner Shelly whipped up a fantastic soup, and the recipe is worth sharing.  Truth be told, we got the basic idea for this dish from good ole' Lidia Bastianich.  You know, this woman:

We recently saw an episode of her show, Lidia's Italy, in which she prepared two types of soups native to the Molise region.  But after we searched high and low for the recipes online and found niente, we decided to give it a go from memory.  The recipe that follows, therefore, is really some sort of amalgamation of Lidia's two dishes with Shelly's own personal touches here and there.

Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium-sized onion, diced
2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1 bay leaf
1 large Idaho potato, cubed
3 tbsp. tomato paste
2 vine tomatoes, diced
3-4 stalks celery, diced
2-3 large chard leaves, chopped
1/4-1/2 lb. scallops
1/4-1/2 lb. peeled, de-veined med. shrimp
9-10 cups boiling water
1 chicken bouillon cube (optional)

1 1/2 cups tacozze (rough, square-cut pasta):
3 cups flour
3/4 cup water
pinch of salt

First, prepare the dough for the pasta.  Pour all three cups of flour into a food processor and add the water and salt until the dough is firm and workable.  Sprinkle with a little extra flour, knead dough for a minute and wrap with cellophane.  Set aside in the refrigerator for at least a half hour.

In the meantime, dice and cube the vegetables.  Then, in a large pot, sweat the onions in the olive oil over medium-high heat and add 1 tsp. of salt.  Toss in the potatoes and add the bay leaf, then stir in the remaining tsp. of salt and allow the onions and potatoes to carmelize.  After 5-6 minutes, clear away a spot in the bottom center of the pot and spoon in the tomato paste.  Let the paste simmer (Lidia calls it "toasting" the paste) before adding the vine tomatoes, celery and chard.

Once your vegetables are hot and coated with tomato paste, pour in boiling water (we boiled it in our tea pot).  Stir a few times and let it lightly boil for about an hour so as to reduce to approximately half the original liquid mixture.

Meanwhile, sprinkle flour over a flat surface.  Knead the dough and cut it into four equal-sized rounds.  Roll each round into a flat, 1/8" thick rectangle.  Using a pizza or pasta cutter, cut the rectangles into small squares, approximately 1" x 1" each.  Coat the squares with a little extra flour and set them aside, then repeat the process with the remaining three rounds.  Set all the fresh pasta aside until the liquid mixture has reduced.

Once the soup has reduced enough, season to taste (more salt? a little pepper?).  Then add the scallops.  After 2 minutes, shake any excess flour off the fresh pasta and add it to the soup.  After 2 minutes, turn off the burner and add the shrimp.  Let the scallops and shrimp continue to cook for 3 minutes or so before ladling.

Here's what our finished product looked like:

Great with a glass of dry white wine.  Buon appetito.