Cavolo Nero - Soup Recipe

Cavolo Nero is great stuff. One of those fantastic dark green winter vegetables that tastes really good and must be extremely good for you too.

It makes a fantastic soup full of strong, gutsy flavours. Here's the one that we tend to use - as you can see it's pretty flexible, depending on what you've got available.

Note on ingredients
You can adapt this recipe in all sorts of ways. We use cubes of salt pork for the bacon - but you can easily use pancetta, lardons, cooking chorizo or even some nice unsmoked streaky bacon. 200g is just a guideline - if you don't have so much that's fine - or if you want to add more, go for it! If you can't get hold of cavolo nero, you could use kale - or some dark green savoy cabbage. Chicken or vegetable stock is fine - you could even use water, although I'd be tempted to up the paprika and add a bay leaf in this case.

It's also well worth looking for some good quality Spanish smoked paprika. It is quite expensive but it lasts for absolutely ages as you use it so sparingly. If you've only got standard paprika, up the amount to a teaspoon.

Ingredients:
200g bacon, cubed
1 head of cavolo nero
1 large onion, chopped
1 good sized garlic clove
2 medium potatoes cut into small cubes
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 litre chicken, vegetable stock or water
salt and pepper

1. Chop the onion and fry it gently in a large casserole, stirring it now and then. You want it well softened but not burnt.
2. Meanwhile, chop the bacon and fry until browned in olive oil in a large frying pan
3. While this is browning, cut the cavolo nero into strips across-ways
4. Remove the bacon from the frying pan and put it to one side
5. Now add the cavolo nero (in 3 or 4 batches) to the frying pan, add a dash of water and stir fry until it's slightly wilted
6. Meanwhile, cube the potato and add it to the softened onion in the casserole. Stir, cover and cook very gently with the lid on for 5-10 mins. Stir occasionally to prevent it sticking.
7. Put the wilted cavolo nero aside with the bacon
8. Chop the garlic clove and add to the onion and potato. Stir fry for 2 mins on a low-medium heat. Add the paprika and cayenne and stir fry for a further minute
9. Add bacon and greens to the casserole, give it all a good stir together
10. Add the stock - top it up with water or more stock to make sure it covers the vegetables - and bring to the boil
11. Cook on a low simmer for 30 minutes or so - check that the potato is cooked before serving
12. Serve and enjoy!