I’ve said it before—I love peas; and I’m also a huge fan of a tasty soup. This gorgeous recipe combines two of my favourite things and is my interpretation of a Jamie Oliver’s recipe in Jamie’s Kitchen
To pack the soup full of flavour, it’s really important to cook the shallots and mint slowly on a low heat. All the crunch should be gone from the shallots. They should be soft and golden, and starting to pull apart into threads. It’s also important to go light on salt in the soup itself. Remember, you’ll be adding prosciutto at the end, which is quite salty. You want a creamy soup with just a hint of sweetness, crunchy croutons and salty, crisp prosciutto for a perfectly balanced dish.
Ingredients:
½ loaf of stale ciabatta
Olive oil
1 large handful of fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped
12 slices of thin prosciutto
1 bunch of spring onions, ends trimmed and finely chopped
2 tbs butter
500g frozen peas
500ml chicken stock
500ml chicken consommé
½ cup thickened cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method:
Break the bread into irregular 2–3cm pieces. Put these into a roasting tray and drizzle with a little olive oil; toss to coat. Cover the bread with the prosciutto slices and place under a hot grill until the bread and prosciutto are crunchy and golden, around 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, slowly fry the spring onions and mint in the butter for until soft. Turn up the heat, add frozen peas and the chicken stock and consommé. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer uncovered until slightly reduced. The key is to reduce the stock up to the point where the peas are still lovely and green, not green–grey, as this will end up the overall colour of your soup. With a stick blender (or in the food processor), puree the soup until it is smooth.
Add the cream and simmer gently until reduced, approximately 15–20 minutes. Season to taste.
Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with bread, prosciutto and mint leaves (serves 4–6).