Bottom Soup

One of the things I like the most about living in Spain are the fabulous school lunches. Nico goes to a public school and everyday he eats a two-course meal (prepared in the school's own kitchen) that includes all kinds of healthily prepared fish, meats, fruits and vegetables. Not once have I seen pizza, hotdogs, hamburgers or chicken nuggets on the menu. A few samples from this month's menu:

Menu 1- Spanish lentils, breaded bonito (similar to tuna but better), green salad, milk and seasonal fruit.

Menu 2- Valencian paella, eggs with "salsa de la cazadora" (sauce of the huntress??), mushrooms and bacon, water and yogurt.

Menu 3- Braised swiss chard, filets of hake, fresh corn and tomato salad, milk and seasonal fruit.

All the menus are given to parents at the beginning of the month with suggestions printed on the back of each day for what to prepare for dinner at home to make up a balanced diet.

The methods (at least in Nico's Madrid school) of getting the kids to eat are a bit harsher than anything I can imagine going on in any American school. When Nico was in P3 (three-year olds), each child was forced to take three bites of each dish and if they refused to do it, they'd have to go sit at the "baby table."

I'm not sure how I feel about this. When I first heard about it I was quite horrified and I know there were a few kids in his class who really suffered under these conditions. On the other hand, I saw that Nico's dietary horizons expanded tremendously after only a few months. Thanks to his school lunches, he has learned to love fish, salad and probably any number of other things that I'm not even aware of.

Until last week, one dish in particular was a mystery to me. For the past several months Nico would always talk about a certain lunch that he particularly loved which he referred to as "bottom soup." Nowhere on the menu was there any mention of bottoms so I found this a bit confusing. The other day though in the supermarket, we passed a jar of chickpeas and Nico pointed at them and said, "Oh look mommy, bottoms!" Aha….

I decided that since he loved it so much, I too would make bottom soup. Of course he told me that my rendition of the soup was NOT AT ALL WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT but he ate it. Personally I thought it was delicious and super easy to make.

Here is my recipe (inspired by Penne and Chickpea soup from Cook's Illustrated). 

Bottom Soup

Ingredients

-1/4 cup olive oil
-4 oz finely chopped bacon
-4 medium garlic cloves (minced)
-1 teaspoon dried rosemary (or a tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary)
-5 cups of tiny little bottoms, er um, chickpeas (frozen, jarred, canned, whatever)
-10 oz frozen package of spinach
-2 14 oz. cans of chopped tomatoes
-3 cups of chicken stock
-2 cups of water
-salt and pepper to taste.

1. Heat olive oil in soup kettle. Add bacon and sauté until browned.
2. Add garlic and rosemary and sauté a couple minutes until fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes, chickpeas, spinach (I just threw in the frozen hunk), chicken stock and water.
4. Bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for at least 45 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with good bread and butter. CI also recommends grating some Pecorino Romano cheese over the soup but I thought it was tasty enough without.