ZUCCHINI****Italian-style courgette and parmesan soup

By Unblond1

18/01/15 - I like this, makes a nice lunch for work. The chunks left in after pureeing add a nice texture. I used pre-shredded parm, however, and I think the fresh would be much better.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• handful basil leaves (preferably Italian), chopped (didn't have)
• sea salt and ground white pepper, to taste
• 2 lb. small zucchini, cut lengthways into quarters then into 1/2" slices (the packages from Costco are perfect for this)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, or mascarpone or light cream cheese or greek yogurt (I used the heavy cream the first time but I'm sure something lighter would work, especially with the cheese already in there)
• handful flatleaf parsley or dill or mint or combination, chopped (I used dill the first time but mint would be nice too)
• 2 oz freshly grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
• salt and cayenne pepper
• pinch of grate nutmeg (I can't recall if I used this the first time or not but it would definitely work.

Preparation

Step 1

1.Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat.

2.Cook the garlic, basil, salt and courgette slowly for 10 minutes, or until the courgettes are lightly browned and softened.

3.Add white pepper, to taste, then pour in the stock and simmer for 8 minutes, uncovered. Remove from the heat.

4.Put three-quarters of the soup mixture into a food processor and blend until smooth (I used the stick blender).

5.Return the mixture to the pan and stir in the cream, herbs and parmesan.