A Common Pot

When a man asked God about heaven and hell, God first shows him a land where all the people have a delicious meat soup. But they have spoons longer than their arms, so they go hungry and suffer in hell.

Then God shows the man another place where everyone has the same wonderful soup and same long spoons. But here they use the spoons to feed each other. This is heaven. — Chinese parable

Soup is almost certainly the second oldest cooking method (roasting/grilling being the oldest) and dates at least from the invention of pottery. In fact, it’s potentially older than that because it’s possible to make soups and stews in animal skins.

Although it’s unlikely that we have any genetic predilection for soup, we almost certainly have cultural predilections, shared with all other humans, and reaching back at least 10,000 years if soup began with pottery. That’s a lot of soup under the spoon.

Given soup’s long history, it’s not surprising that stories such as the Chinese parable above have grown up around the dish. Here in the West our most popular story is Stone Soup, which is also a parable about sharing. Soup is an obvious metaphor for community with its common pot from which the same goodness flows to all who partake.

I spent this weekend making soup. Literally. The whole weekend. Act One began Friday morning with a shopping trip. Friday afternoon I made ham stock, beef stock, and Beer-braised Short Ribs. The soupy saga continued Saturday morning when I taught a class on soups and stews making Country Ham and Barley Soup (here’s a similar recipe), Cheddar Chowder, Garlic/Tomato Soup, demonstrated how to make stock, and showed how to make the short ribs while serving the batch I made on Friday.

Act 2 began Saturday afternoon with a trip to the fish market followed by finishing the stock and short ribs I’d begun in the class. Act 3 occurred this morning when I made cioppino for my mother’s birthday dinner. There was a whole lot of soup-making, and sharing, going on.

Cioppino is the San Francisco version bouillabaisse. Traditionally it was made and shared on the fishing boats, while out to sea, using whatever was in the nets when lunch time rolled around. The only repeated elements from one day to the next were olive oil (lots of it), tomatoes, wine, and sourdough bread. For me cioppino with fresh sourdough bread is what California tastes like. Here’s what I did this morning:

Cioppino

1 ea onion — diced
1/4 ea green bell pepper — diced
3 cloves garlic
1/4 c olive oil
1 1/2 c white wine
1 can diced tomatoes, 28 oz.
2 btls clam juice (I wasn’t up to making another stock)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp anchovy
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 dz littleneck clams
1/2 lb monkfish — cut into 1″ cubes
1/2 lb scrod — cut into 1″ cubes
1/2 lb shrimp
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley

Heat olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat, add onions and pepper, and sauté until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add white wine and reduce to 1/2 cup. Add tomatoes (with juice), clam juice, oregano, tomato paste, anchovy paste, red pepper, and a good dash of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add clams to soup. When clams open add scrod and monkfish. Cook five minutes. Add shrimp and cook until shrimp and fish are done — 5 to 7 minutes. Add parsley and serve. Serves 4.

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