Split pea soup with bacon and spaetzle

Split pea soup with bacon is an incredible taste, a long history, a combination of gastronomic cultures. It’s the tastiest soup in the world

Split pea soup with bacon has a long history…

The history of peas and mankind has been intertwined for many centuries. Even when no one grew this legume, our ancestors were extremely happy when they accidentally came across a bush of wild peas; they really liked the sweet taste of its pods and seeds. Subsequently, people got tired of constantly looking for wild peas and around 8000 BC they began to grow them in the territories of modern Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Syria. From there, peas spread throughout Asia and Europe.

Peas were especially popular in ancient Greece. Residents of Athens cooked and sold split pea soup with bacon or meat right on the streets of the city. This “street food” was pretty much liked by the ancient Greeks.

The inhabitants of ancient Rome also loved peas very much. Even the legendary ancient Roman gourmet Mark Apicius in his cookbook (which, by the way, was the first collection of recipes in history) described in detail 9 recipes for pea dishes. The Romans generally respected all legumes and even the surnames of noble ancient Roman families derived from the names of legumes: for example, the surname of Marcus Tulius Cicero (a famous Roman politician, philosopher, poet, lawyer and terrible talker, or, as they say, “orator”) came from the word “cicer” – chickpeas; other famous ancient Roman “legume” surnames were: Fabia from “fave” – broad beans, Lentuli from “lenticchie” – lentils, Pisone from “piselli” – peas… only the normal beans were underestimated and were considered food for the common people, unworthy of the nobility. Although such “disrespect” for beans lasted relatively short and over time they also took a prominent place in ancient Roman cooking.

“Tourists” from other areas, who were lucky enough to taste fantastic split pea soup with bacon in ancient Athens and Rome, were pleasantly surprised and, returning home, told their friends and relatives about this exotic dish. Over time, split pea soup was also cooked in other countries, in each locality, the recipe was changed following the local tastes and available ingredients.

Peas are a green culinary pearl

During the Middle Ages, peas, chickpeas, lentils, beans and broad beans became mega-popular. In those days, the heartier the food, the more people loved it. And legumes were also very economical and easy to store – this was an added bonus for their popularity at that time.

Today, canned or frozen peas are absolutely not a curiosity, but during the Middle Ages, the only way to store legumes was to dry them. Dried peas were stored well for a long time (they could be safely stored even for 12 years!), people prepared split pea soup with bacon or meat, made flour and even baked bread from dried peas.

In the beginning (as in ancient Rome), legumes were food for the common people, but over time, the nobility fell in love with them too. For example, in Florence, the Medici family developed a new type of peas, with particularly small seeds. Then Catherine de’ Medici married Henry and became the queen of France. In addition to clothes, jewelry and other dowries, she also took peas (the ones with small seeds, which her family especially loved) with her to France. Thus, peas reached the French royal court and the French became very fond of petit pois or “green pearls”.

Split pea soup with bacon and spaetzle is a different story …

Pea soup… (I’m talking about split pea soup now)… I always had some kind of double attitude towards it: I more or less loved the one that my mother cooked at home and hated the one that we often had for lunch in kindergarten (who went to a Soviet kindergarten will definitely understand me …) Mom’s soup smelled delicious, and the one in the kindergarten somehow incomprehensibly and sadly “floated” in a huge saucepan, which the cook brought to our cafeteria and poured into the plates with a huge ladle. I still remember that soup that asked “don’t eat me, please.” Or maybe I was the only one who was so difficult?

In general, I always preferred split peas as a filling for fried Ukrainian pies and in the form of pure, poured with some oil and garnished with fried onions. That was really yummy…

So I lived in a state of complete indifference to split pea soup for more than 30 years … and then there was a big revolution in my “pea soup” prejudices … I discovered an incredible miracle – split pea soup with bacon and spaetzle! And I realized that this pea soup is not just a thick green-yellowish first course with a taste and texture typical only for this soup … it’s a whole universe of unique taste and an excellent galaxy of aroma! It’s so appetizing that it could easily win the competition for the most delicious first course!

What is a spaetzle? Small (like droplets) dumplings or noodles are hiding under this exotic name. These dumplings were not “born” yesterday… they come from medieval Germany. As I have already mentioned, in those days almost all the dishes were simple and satisfying. In medieval times spaetzle were used for the most part as a side dish to meat. Over time, the spaetzle spread to other bordering territories – they were loved in Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy. In Italy, these dumplings turned into the first dish and got into split pea soup with bacon, one of the most delicious in the world!

Bacon instantly makes the taste rich and out of the ordinary. Tomato paste adds subtle, but very important flavor notes. Plus onions, carrots, a pinch of inspiration, a tablespoon of good mood and you will have such yummy that you won’t even want to remember any other pea soup.

Ingredients:

If you are a happy digital kitchen scale owner, I highly recommend using it instead of cups and spoons. Especially when it comes to baking recipes. A scale gives you far more accurate results than volume measurements (everyone scoops ingredients differently). Trust me, using a kitchen scale to measure ingredients will take your baking to a new level.

• ¾ cup (150g) split dry peas
• 4 oz (100g) bacon
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 Tbsp tomato concentrate
• salt, pepper, paprika to taste
• 1 clove of garlic
• 8 cups (2 liters) water

(For the spaetzle):

• ¾ cup + 3 Tbsp (150g) flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup (250ml) milk
• a pinch of dry ground paprika (optional)

Split pea soup with bacon recipe

Add water to the peas and boil until tender (about 30 – 40 minutes). Soaking split peas before cooking is not necessary. I just rinse them well, add water and immediately put them to boil. Don’t pour out the water after cooking (we’ll need for the soup)

Cut the potatoes into small pieces. Add potatoes to the cooked split peas, if necessary add more water and boil until potatoes are half cooked.

Cut the onion into small cubes, grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Saute them in some oil until the onion is transparent. Then add tomato concentrate and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Cut the bacon into small cubes and cook it in a little oil.

When the potatoes are half cooked, add the sautéed carrots, onions and bacon to it. Boil until the potatoes are fully cooked (add more water if necessary)

While the soup is cooking, prepare the spaetzle (I start preparing the batter for the spaetzle immediately after I put the potatoes to boil): mix the flour and salt. Separately, beat the egg with milk.

Add the milk-and-egg mixture to flour and salt. Also add paprika if you like it. Mix everything well and leave for 20 minutes at room temperature

After 20 minutes the batter is ready, you can make spaetzle. German cooks (as well as Austrian, Swiss and Northern Italian ones) usually have a special device with holes for spaetzle. I adapted with what I had in my kitchen – I use a coarse grater (the one on which I grate beets for Ukrainian borscht). So, I take a grater, hold it upside down over the boiling soup, pour the batter on it with a spoon and it flows perfectly through the holes right into the boiling soup (if it doesn’t flow well, help it by rubbing it with a spoon on the surface of the grater)

As soon as spaetzle float to the surface, they are ready. Add salt and pepper and, if you like spicy dishes – add another pinch of dry ground paprika. Add a clove of garlic (passed through a press) and sprinkle with green parsley or onion. Bon Appetit!

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