RECIPE: Pumpkin Soup With Bacon, Sage & Gnocchi

[1] You can serve either gnocchi or tortellini in his rich pumpkin soup (photos #1 and #2 © DeLallo).

[2] If you like, substitute tortellini for the gnocchi in the photo.

[3] Flash-fried sage leaves. Here’s the recipe (photo © Saveur Magazine).

This bowl of soup is hearty enough to be the main course at lunch or dinner, with a green salad.

It’s gnocchi in a bowl of thick, silky pumpkin cream soup (here are the different types of soup).

The soup is a creamy pumpkin purée with fresh sage and bacon. The gnocchi are topped with grated parmesan.

“It’s like autumn in a bowl” says DeLallo, creator of the recipe.

You can buy the gnocchi or, if you’re a hand at pasta-making, make it with this kit from DeLallo.

We bought ours, and we also bought some pumpkin tortellini to try it both ways. Both were great!

You may wish to serve the soup with crusty bread and a dish of olive oil for dipping.
 
 
RECIPE: PUMPKIN SOUP WITH BACON, SAUSAGE & GNOCCHI

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BOIL a large pot of salted water to cook the gnocchi or tortellini.

2. HEAT a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp, about 8 minutes.

2. REMOVE the bacon, set aside and pour in the vermouth. As the alcohol simmers, scrape up any crispy browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a spatula (these bits are known as the fond*). Let the vermouth reduce by roughly half, about 3 minutes. With the pot on medium-high heat…

3. ADD the onions to the pot and cook until translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the pumpkin and stock, stirring until thoroughly until combined. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. ADD the cream to the pumpkin mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the sage, pepper and bacon. Then add the vinegar and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Add the gnocchi to the soup and serve with the sage leaves. When the soup is brought to the table:

5. PASS around the parmesan cheese so people can choose how much they’d like. We prefer to pass around a wedge of parmesan and a hand grater for the fun of grating one’s own—and also because freshly-grated cheese tastes better.

Parmesan is salty so this recipe has no salt added, and chicken stock is salted as well. You may wish to have a salt shaker on the table for those who want more.

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*Fond is the French word for bottom, indicating food which sticks to the bottom of the pot and has to be scraped off to be eaten.