Stuffing soup

The folks from Shanghai make a dumpling stuffed with soup.. sort of. Here, with surplus stuffing from Chris & Arts’s excellent Thanksgiving meal, I thought I’d put the stuffing into a soup. Naturally too, this recipe is dedicated to them, though I’d urge Shraddha and Lakshmi to try it out as well.  Worked quite nicely too… reminiscent of a well mashed rasam chadam (see page on ultimate Indian comfort foods) or the Italian-style bread soup that I’ve made for folks from different parts of the world.

Sauteed what was left of the celery (earlier used in the aforementioned stuffing), an onion, some garlic in olive oil. There were lots or fresh herbs too so I added generous amounts of rosemary and thyme. A lone Italian sausage in the freezer was defrosted somewhat and squeezed out of its casing right into the pan.. stirred everything, covered and left to cook a bit over low heat seasoning with salt, black pepper and chili flakes to taste. Once everything was translucent and softened, added the stuffing––that Chris made with masa cornbread, celery, mushrooms, and other good stuff–and gave it a few more stirs till warmed through. Then added some tomatoes (we had two old ones in the fridge) a splash of wine vinegar and a little more olive oil and cooked a bit longer till tomatoes lost their raw look. Added some boiling water to cover, brought the whole thing to a boil before blitzing a few blitzes with the immersion blender (Well, Chris did that, because I am still scared of those things). And there you have it.. stuffing soup to warm your soul.