Tuesday's With Uncle Steve...

...ARE BACK!
For the month of December & the first week in Jan, we had to do 'Uncle Steve' nights on Thursday. COMPLETELY messed with my mojo... SO now we're back on our regularly scheduled night & bringing you a DELICIOUS NEW RECIPE TO WARM YOU DURING THESE COLD WINTER NIGHTS!

Italian Chicken Noodle Soup


Ingredients:
12 cups chicken stock
4-5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large Spanish onions chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
6-8 celery stalks chopped (leaves & all)
1 pkg baby carrots cut into bite size circles
4 large boneless chicken breasts roughly chopped (larger pieces)
2 cans of: diced tomatoes (brand of your choice, mine is pictured)
1 palm full Italian seasoning
1 palm full dried thyme (not ground)
Salt & fresh ground pepper (to taste)
1 palm full Bell's Seasoning (the kind people use on stuffing at Thanksgiving)
1/2 lb of Barilla ditalini pasta
(ONLY the half pound IF you intend to eat the HUGE pot worth...
otherwise, for a smaller pot to be eaten that evening, 2 to 3 hand-fulls of pasta ONLY.)


EVOO in bottom of large soup pot over medium heat.
Add onions & garlic, saute for five minutes or until slightly transparent.


Add salt, pepper & Italian seasoning


now add a palm full of Bell's seasoning,


and a palm full of dried thyme,


& stir.


Now add your celery,


& stir again...


Now toss in your chicken pieces,


& again, stir...


Now add your two cans of diced tomatoes...

*I like two different kinds, one has wine & the other more Italian seasonings...
obviously feel free to pick two that your family enjoys!*


1st can...


...2nd can!


You know what comes next...
STIR!


Now add your chicken stock.


Then last but not least, add your carrots...


...mmm doesn't that look YUMMY!
(oh cuz it SO is!)
hehehe


Turn the heat down to low, for me that's 3 on my stove,
all stoves are different, so you be the judge...


Cover & walk away.
Here is the part where, if I were motivated to do so, I'd clean something.
But I wasn't, so I just played with miss Ruby instead.
*grin*
hehehe


Now, here's the key feature, before you add any pasta, section out an amount that you KNOW you're going to eat that night.
Put that into a separate smaller pot & return that small pot to the low heat.
Remove the BIG pot from the heat & just cover & let come to room temp.
(to put in fridge for another day...)


Oh yeah, I know your mouth is watering...


Now, to that smaller pot, you are going to add your pasta, UNCOOKED.
REMEMBER, ONLY 2-3 HANDFULLS FOR THE SMALLER POT!
(so forgot to mention that the first time around, my bad!)

It'll take 20 minutes on that low heat to cook within the soup.
The reason I don't cook all of it in the huge pot is simple... pasta absorbs liquid.
If I put this whole box into that whole pot, which I could have easily done,
I would have to be sure that the whole pot were about to be enjoyed by several football teams.
Leftover soup is fine but you don't want leftover soup with PASTA in it.
You want leftover soup WITHOUT pasta so that is why we put the large pot aside for another time & only put the pasta in the small pot.
It's a sneaky way to make soup last the longest & taste the FRESHEST!


Once you add your uncooked pasta,
cover pot & stir every so often until it's done.
(about 20 minutes)



Freshly grate some imported parmigiano reggiano cheese,
sprinkle over hot soup
&
MANGIA TUTTI!
hehehe

Ok, all this talk has made me hungry
&
Uncle Steve just arrived!

Bye everyone-
SOUP'S ON!