{"id":930,"date":"2015-01-18T14:54:21","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T20:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=930"},"modified":"2015-11-06T14:03:54","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T20:03:54","slug":"the-italian-word-for-leftovers-chicken-parmigiana-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=930","title":{"rendered":"The Italian Word for Leftovers: Chicken Parmigiana Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D930&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Italian-Chicken-Cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-931\" title=\"Chicken Soup, Italian Style\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Italian-Chicken-Cropped-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Italian-Chicken-Cropped-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Italian-Chicken-Cropped-100x66.jpg 100w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Italian-Chicken-Cropped.jpg 935w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Does anyone out there have food in their refrigerator that they don\u2019t recognize?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a question of whether the food is yours or not.\u00a0 The container may even have your name on it. It\u2019s just been in there so long you don\u2019t quite know what it is.<\/p>\n<p>You start out with good intentions.\u00a0 You\u2019re saving food.\u00a0 Throwing the stuff away is just too hard to stomach, so you pack it up, put it in the fridge and make a vague promise to finish eating it later.<\/p>\n<p>Then the food takes on a life of its own, sneaking its way to the back of the shelf where it sits for weeks (months?) until it comes back to life\u2014of the furry, bacteria-laden kind.\u00a0 Your leftovers are still food, just not food for humans (or dogs, cats, guinea pigs or most other mammals).\u00a0 Talk about hard to stomach.<\/p>\n<p>I do my best to use all the food in my refrigerator often turning leftover ingredients into soup or some other dish.\u00a0 Oftentimes I will then try to can the soup, but I\u2019ll admit, many\u2019s the time that these soups have made the same back of the fridge migration as my other \u201csaved\u201d foods.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it wasn\u2019t going to happen this week.<\/p>\n<p>By Wednesday, the roast chicken we had for dinner on Monday was already the inspiration for this week\u2019s soup:\u00a0 Chicken Parmigiana.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re surprised that leftover chicken ever makes it to the back of the fridge, so am I.\u00a0 I\u2019m disappointed too.\u00a0 Wasted protein seems to be a bigger crime than wasted vegetables.\u00a0 For one reason you can\u2019t compost it.\u00a0 For another it costs more.\u00a0 I\u2019m also not a big fan of killing animals only to throw their remains in the dumpster.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> <em>Okay, I don\u2019t actually kill the animals I eat. I\u2019m not as macho as Sarah Palin. \u00a0I do wear the pants in the family (No, not all of them), but our family\u2019s meat comes in attractive Styrofoam and plastic wrap packages. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Even so, leftover chicken doesn\u2019t always make its way back to our table.\u00a0 I blame my kids, of course.\u00a0 For some reason they don\u2019t like chicken sandwiches.\u00a0 Oh, I can get away with an occasional chicken salad recipe (dill pickles, celery, mayo and voila!) but I\u2019d already made a batch earlier in the week.\u00a0 And I\u2019d just made some pasta too (the other obvious use of leftover chicken).<\/p>\n<p>No, the only place I\u2019d get rid of that chicken this week was on you people.<\/p>\n<p>So here it is.<\/p>\n<p>It began with the classic soup starter of onions, carrots and celery (what the Frenchies call <em>mirepoix<\/em>).\u00a0 Then I added chicken, tomato paste, stock, half &amp; half (mid-recipe part of me started thinking about cream of chicken soup) and cheese.<\/p>\n<p>It was quite good.<\/p>\n<p>Even my Philistine children liked it.\u00a0 They did not, however, ask for seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings me back to the leftover problem.<\/p>\n<p>(dang)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chicken Parmigiana Soup<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 6-8)<br \/>\n8 oz. onions, chopped<br \/>\n8 oz. carrots, chopped<br \/>\n8 oz. celery, chopped<br \/>\n1 lb leftover chicken meat, cut up, no bones please (yes, you can use fresh if you have to)<br \/>\n1 6 oz can tomato paste<br \/>\n2 cloves garlic, chopped<br \/>\n6 cups stock<br \/>\nsalt &amp; pepper to taste<br \/>\n2 cups half &amp; half<br \/>\n2 cups shredded mozzarella<br \/>\nparmesan cheese, grated<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Put vegetables, chicken, tomato paste, garlic and stock into a pot, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Add the half &amp; half and heat through (about 5 more minutes) then puree the soup with an immersion blender.<\/li>\n<li>Fold in the shredded mozzarella, stirring until melted.<\/li>\n<li>Serve the soup hot with grated parmesan sprinkled on top as a garnish.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: <\/em>\u201cChicken Soup, Italian Style\u201d Thank goodness for clipart flags.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you know I had originally intended to turn my soups into a cookbook?\u00a0 My plan was to use my typical method of converting classic dishes into soups.\u00a0 The name was going to be \u201cWatered Down Classics.\u201d\u00a0 Can anyone guess why I decided that name might not be the best choice?\u00a0 Leave a comment. <\/strong><strong>I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Does anyone out there have food in their refrigerator that they don\u2019t recognize? It\u2019s not a question of whether the food is yours or not.\u00a0 The container may even have your name on it. It\u2019s just been in there so long you don\u2019t quite know what it is. You start out with good intentions.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,48,8,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheese","category-dairy","category-poultry","category-tomatoes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2214,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/2214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}