Blech!

Mauricio and I went to a friend's 40th birthday party on Saturday night. It was a fun and raucous party with excellent food. Mauricio bar tended which contributed to me having a little too much to drink, although I did not drink nearly as much as most. The bad news is that I became ill, as in I caught a bug and woke up with a sore throat and cough Sunday morning. The good news is that I was not hung over. I am however currently sick and losing my voice, much to my children's delight, heh.

In light of this, I will make an Italian turkey noodle soup tonight. This is an old Italian peasant soup loaded with vegetables and tiny pork and beef meatballs which has been in my family for many generations. It's actually a soup that is traditionally served at Italian celebrations such as weddings or baptisms. This will hopefully boost my ailing immune system.

To make the soup I'll start off with bones from the carcass of a roasted 20 lb. free range turkey with all skin removed. Bones are the essence of any good stock. Without bones to boil, there will be only a shadow of flavor and the resulting soup will taste bland and watery. When I roast a turkey or chicken for dinner, I always save the bones/carcass and make soup with them immediately or freeze them for use some time in the future. It's a pain in the ass to roast a bird just to make soup from it and roasting a bird adds an amazing flavor that cannot be achieved by simply plunking a whole raw bird in a pot.

I will just barely cover the bones with cold water. The cold water will slowly be brought to a boil and then immediately lowered to a very gentle simmer. This is key in ensuring a relatively clear broth. I'll add a whole yellow onion split in half with the skin on, two whole bay leaves, a small handful of peppercorns, a stalk of celery and a bouquet garni from my front planter consisting of thyme, sage, parsley, rosemary and marjoram which will be tightly bunched and placed in a large tea ball infuser. All of this will gently simmer together for three hours. After three hours, the bones will have lost all their connective tissue in to the stock and the stock will be a light golden color and rich in flavor. I'll strain the stock and pick off any turkey meat to be added back in. I will add the miniature Italian spiced meatballs which were roasted in the oven, medium egg noodles, peas, diced carrots and spinach from the garden. I'll season with salt and pepper and serve with shaved Parmesan cheese on top. Crusty Italian peasant bread will be used to soak up the soup. Mauricio and the kids love this soup and my cold has given me a great excuse to make it tonight.