FTW Kitchen: Family Sunday Soup

By Pamela Capriotti Martin

I grew up in a family without many food traditions. How could that be for a girl with an Italian last name? My mother was Norwegian, and while my grandmother was a marvelous cook, I don’t think my mother ever really cared to cook. Or bake. She loved the convenience foods that came to be in the 50’s and 60’s and she worked full-time from the time I was 4. Dinner was never a priority although it should be noted, we definitely ate dinner every night.

When I was a senior in high school, my mother broke her leg and was unable to walk without crutches for months as it required surgery. I took over the cooking. Totally. And the shopping. I had a cookbook and taught myself to cook before cooking shows existed. I worked my way through the book to the delight (lasagna) and annoyance (eggplant parmesan) of my brothers and father.

When I married my Italian/Irish husband – he loved cooking. So we cooked. And created. And Sunday has always been my day to cook. Pot roasts, roasted chicken, buttermilk pound cake, apple pie, and the family favorite – Sunday Soup. Because Sunday is about family. It’s about comforting food. And it’s about the joy of fresh ingredients melding together to create a family tradition of love.

The recipe for Sunday Soup, so named by my girls, originated in a cookbook I bought from the Cookbook Store in Toronto in 1986. Today, we can find recipes on the internet in moments, but not so in the 80’s. This soup and so many other family recipe traditions we have built as a family is about my daughters – who all are wonderful cooks – and the memories we created as we cooked together. Some days we learned fractions by measuring. Some days we created disasters that looked better in our minds than it did on a plate or in a bowl. And some days we logged time just simply being together creating, experimenting, and eating the spoils.

It should be noted that this is a full meal soup accompanied by a crusty bread, a little cheese, and possibly, just possibly a homemade apple pie – hence the apples in the picture.

This is our family’s: Sunday Soup (adapted from Soups and Stews by California Culinary Academy)

2 T Olive Oil
2 1/2 – 3 lb beef short ribs (bone in)
2 medium onions (I like Vidalia but a white or yellow onion works as well)
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic (grated)
1 red pepper seeded and chopped
1 – 2 t chili powder (this is the ingredient that makes this soup sing)
1 large can/box chopped tomatoes
2 large carrots, thinly sliced
4-6 small red potatoes quartered (scrubbed but not peeled)
1 bay leaf
2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t dried marjoram
8 cups chicken stock (or water but the stock gives it greater depth)
1 cup small pasta
1/2 cup chopped parsley

1. Salt and pepper short ribs. In a 6 – 8 quart Dutch oven over medium heat, add olive oil and brown short ribs well on all sides. Add onion, celery, garlic, and bell pepper around ribs, stirring occasionally until vegetables are limp. Sprinkle with chili powder.
2. Add tomatoes and liquid, half the carrots, bay leaf, salt, pepper, marjoram and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and cover. Reduce the heat, and simmer until meat is tender (3 – 4 hours.)
3. Remove and discard bay leaf. Remove short ribs; when cool, remove meat from bones. Cut meat into bite size pieces, return to soup discarding fat and bones. Soup can be made to this point, when at room temperature, place in fridge overnight.
4. At this point, I add the remaining carrot and potatoes and bring it to a boil, reduce heat until new vegetables are tender.
5. While soup is finishing, boil salted water, add pasta. When pasta is cooked al dente, drain, don’t rinse. Place ladle of pasta in bottom of soup bowl.
6. Taste soup, adjust salt if needed, add parsley and serve over pasta.

NB: This is a forgiving soup in terms of adding vegetables – more, less, whatever you like or have on hand. I often add turnip or rutabaga and definitely peas are generally put in at the end to give it more color.