VEGETABLE SOUP ( Zuppa alla Primaverile )
Take some cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, turnips, lettuce, squash, potatoes, beans, and peas. Chop each into very small pieces, wash and drain. Take a saucepan, put in a heaping tablespoon of butter; chop up another small piece of onion and add to butter and fry until onion is golden; then add all the vegetables, salt, and pepper, and cover the saucepan. When the vegetables are half cooked, and their juice has become absorbed, dissolve one tablespoon of tomato paste in one-third of a cup of hot water, and add. Instead of the tomato paste there may be added to the onion, before putting in the vegetables, one tomato, peeled and cut into small pieces. When the tomato is cooked add the vegetables. Then add water, a little at a time, until you have sufficient quantity for two persons. Take a slice of bread and cut into small squares or diamonds—toast or fry as desired—put these into the soup plates, and pour the soup (without straining) over them.
LETTUCE SOUP ( Zuppa di Lattuga )
1 small lettuce Meat stock 2 potatoes The leaves of a head of celery 2 tablespoons of peas, fresh or canned 1 heaping tablespoon of flour
Put the potatoes, cold boiled, into the stock when it boils, add the celery leaves, the lettuce chopped up, the peas, and the flour mixed well with a little cold stock or water. Boil for one hour and a half, and serve with little squares of fried bread.
PUMPKIN SOUP ( Zuppa di Zucca )
1 slice of pumpkin 2 tablespoons of butter 1/2 cup of water 1-1/2 cups of milk 1 tablespoon of sugar
Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds, cut into small pieces, and put into a saucepan with the butter, the sugar, a pinch of salt, and the water. Boil for two hours, then drain and put back into the saucepan with the milk, which has been boiled. Allow it to come to a boil, and then serve it with squares of fried bread.
POTATO SOUP ( Zuppa alla Provinciale )
2 large potatoes 3 tablespoons of cream or milk 2 tablespoons of butter 2 yolks of eggs Soup stock