Thanksgiving Afterglow
Turkey Soup with Pappardelle and chicken noodle soup have similarities, but they are not the same. We all know that chicken noodle soup is love in a bowl. Turkey Soup with Pappardelle is more like the afterglow. It’s for those quiet days after the hustle and bustle of cooking and cleaning, and the hassle of packing and travel. Chicken noodle soup is your pajamas when you need TLC. Turkey Soup is your leggings and Hokas, after a long run.
I didn’t cook Thanksgiving dinner for the family this year. This is the second year in a row that Mitsou and Nicole, our nephew and his wife, have hosted the family gathering. I so appreciate them, and I hope this means that I’ve passed the baton. As much as I love to cook, cooking for a crowd is still overwhelming to me. I wouldn’t call it fun. Planning the menu might be fun, and even cleaning up isn’t such a slog, but the actual effort is daunting. Making sure I have twelve wine glasses, twelve dinner plates, twelve knives, twelve forks, twelve spoons, twelve tidbit plates, twelve dessert bowls, five leaves in the table, twelve mismatched chairs around the table, and only then realizing that I didn’t count myself. There will be thirteen people at the table, IF I even get a chance to sit down… I do always find that thirteenth wine glass. And OMG, did we clean the bathroom? Getting up early to do all of the things that either couldn’t be done the day before or didn’t get done the day before – mincing and chopping and slicing and measuring and stirring. Digging out and ironing the tablecloth, counting the napkins. Taking out the trash. I never find the time to even comb my hair. I’m a mess by the time people arrive. (I’m not alone in this, right?)
But that didn’t happen this year! We made a few appetizers, packed a couple bottles of wine, and I spent the rest of the morning filing my nails, fluffing my hair, picking out jewelry, putting on a bit of makeup. We swanned in on time, with smiles on our faces.
It was a fun day! Then back home again – Black Friday. Although we’re not big shoppers, we do have a Black Friday tradition. We typically start on Black Friday and extend the meal throughout the weekend using the leftover turkey and the fixings, which is where this Turkey Soup with Pappardelle comes in. Ron rued not having left-overs, so I did shop on Black Friday – I ran out to buy a turkey. I dry-brined it overnight and roasted it to perfection on Saturday. While the turkey was roasting, I made a big salad and some cranberry sauce. Ron made the mashed potatoes. I made the gravy. It was a delicious and cozy meal – more like a weeknight meal than a holiday meal, but we did have left-overs!
So today Turkey Soup with Pappardelle is simmering on the stove and the scent of rosemary and sage is wafting through the house. All is well in our little world.
Turkey Soup with Pappardelle
Ingredients
- 2 ribs celery
- 3-4 large carrots
- 1 clove garlic
- 12-16 ounces cooked turkey (white and/or dark meat)
- 2 T butter
- 1 T olive oil
- 10 cups turkey stock
- 1 T fresh rosemary
- 2 t dried sage
- 1 salt and pepper, to taste
- 10-14 ounces fresh pappardelle, cut into 2-2½ inch pieces (or any wide, flat pasta shape you prefer)
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Prep the veg and shred the turkey – Slice the celery and carrots, and give the larger pieces of carrots a rough chop. Mince the garlic. Shred the turkey.
- Sauté the veg – Melt the butter in the olive oil in your soup pot, and then add the celery, carrots and garlic. Sauté until very soft.
- Simmer – Add the turkey stock, the shredded turkey, the rosemary, and the sage. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes or so.
- Finish – Add in the pasta and continue simmering until al dente (if using dry pasta) or until it's floating (if you're using fresh pasta). Stir in the peas and continue cooking for a minute or two, to thaw and warm the peas. Serve with hunks of crusty bread.
COOKING NOTE: The glistening collagen-rich broth and the silky Fresh Pasta are what make this soup so much more flavorful and complex than it appears at first blush. If you don’t typically make your own broth from the turkey carcass and bones, please try it next time. Just dump them in your stew pot after dinner while you’re cleaning up. Add a bay leaf or two, some rosemary and sage, some salt and pepper, and let it simmer on the stove for a few hours. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that’s cold this time of the year, you can just stash the whole pot, covered, on your porch before you go to bed. Then make Turkey Soup with Pappardelle the next morning. You’ll be glad you did. Happy holidays, everyone!