Flaherty Wines

Our golden retriever is very true to type, in that she always has something in her mouth. If she can’t find her tennis ball, she’ll pick up a rock and carry that around instead. She also likes to collect things. Whenever anything is missing (slippers, in particular), the first place to look is in her bowl. She recently left a rather large rock in her water bowl, which reminded us all of stone soup–a favorite story when the boys were little. This prompted Ben to plan stone soup for dinner. He found a good sized smooth stone in the garden (one not obviously used by Zeus), and started pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator and pantry. Since the idea was to start with a stone in a pot of water, the onions and garlic were added raw, rather than sautéing them first in butter or oil. The result was a light minestrone-style soup that we all enjoyed. The beauty of this recipe is that you can taylor it to what you have on hand, varying the vegetables and adding in, say, shredded cooked chicken or canned white beans.

Ben’s stone soup

1 smooth stone
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, slivered
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
1 bay leaf, preferably fresh
1 sprig fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
100 g (3.5 oz) pasta (shells or penne)
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
cooked frozen corn
cooked frozen peas
broccoli florets
Parmesan cheese

Wash the stone well and place it in a three-quart pot. Add 8 to 9 cups water and bring to a simmer. Add the onions and garlic and simmer for about five minutes or so before adding in the tomatoes, bay leaf, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and continue simmering for another ten minutes. Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is close to done. Add the carrot and cook for a minute or so before adding the corn, peas, and broccoli. Simmer for just a minute to blanch the broccoli. Adjust the salt and pepper, remove the bay leaf and thyme, and serve immediately, with freshly grated parmesan cheese.