RUSTIC POTATO SOUP PART DEUX

RUSTIC POTATO SOUP PART DEUX image

Number Of Ingredients 9

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2-3 sweet Italian sausages or good Polish kielbasa
1 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp butter
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 cups low sodium (and low fat, si vous voulez) chicken broth
1 ½ pounds of potatoes, peeled and cut into even sized pieces. (I used the small red ones called "cherises" en France)
¼ cup whipping cream, light cream, fat free cream (?) - whichever you prefer
freshly ground pepper

Steps:

Brown sausages in oil in large soup pot. Remove sausages and set aside, add butter to the pot, then onion and fresh thyme. Sauté onions until slightly browned. While they are sautéing, cut the cooked sausages into pieces. When onions are ready, add chicken broth, sausages and potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are soft when forked. (You may want to add a little water now and again while they boil, as the potatoes will tend to absorb some of the liquid.) Once the potatoes are cooked, strain the liquid into a separate bowl. Remove the thyme stems from the solids, and then put approximately half of the potatoes into the blender with all of the liquid. Purée the potatoes and broth, and then add back to the original soup pot and reheat. Add cream to the purée and stir to combine. Add back the remaining potatoes to the soup pot and use a potato masher to break down the pieces. (Don't mash too much, you want to preserve a somewhat lumpy texture - this is RUSTIC remember, and to me that means lumpy.) Add back the sausages and bring soup to a boil. Add fresh ground pepper, to taste. Serve piping hot with rustic (oddly, NOT lumpy in this case) country bread. This can serve 4 people (or just me and Al, as we usually eat the whole pot). P.S -- If you want the recipe with the leeks, kale and bay leaf - tant pis - I think I found it in Cook's Illustrated.