French-Inspired Vegetable Soup

We entertained guests last weekend. Our New York City readers (in particular) know the amount of effort this takes: Sightseeing, museum-hopping, souvenir shopping… It is always fun, but it is tough to cram Manhattan in a mere three days. Some might say "exhausting"!

When the sun started to set on Sunday evening, time was all mine once again. To the cutting board I went. I had no energy to grocery shop, but to stand by my sink in pajamas and chop veggies? Yes. This I could do. When all one wants to do is sit on the couch and call for take-out, even the most amateur home cook will try to  gather enough energy to make the smallest culinary effort. At least I think so.

"No energy" (to us at the Piccolo Gourmet) means "soup". Chop, throw in pot, season, done. The fridge was bare, to say the least, but the produce left over from last week was still (somewhat) plentiful. To throw all these items in a pot, warmly called "Fridge Soup", was the decision for a quiet dinner. And you know what? It was delicious. I would never blog something from an exhausted Sunday evening unless I thought it was worth the effort in re-creating. The secret ingredient here is the wine, at least we think so. Julia Child always added a splash or two to her soups. Why mess with the pros, right? Thinking about her, and French soups in particular, I picked out Julia's usual "go-to" herbs (marjoram, tarragon). It was the right decision. And especially since I had a touch of white wine left over from Friday.

(Serves 2)
Ingredients:
4 stalks of celery with leaves
1 small onion
1 bunch of carrots (6-7 medium-sized carrots)
1 red pepper
1 glass of white wine
1-2 large tablespoons of garlic paste (found in most groceries)
1 tablespoon of each: dried marjoram, tarragon, coriander
sea salt
good olive oil

Seriously, this could not be easier.
1. Chop all veggies.
2. Add olive oil to a pot and add your vegetables. After a few minutes, after the vegetables are warmed, add the salt. This will help extract the water from the celery and onion.
3. Add the herbs and garlic.
4. When you start to smell the garlic cooking, add a full glass of white wine, and simmer the wine until the alcohol is burned off, and most of the liquid is gone.
5. Add water (2 cups or so), and puree with a hand blender.

Done.