Erica De Mane

A very deep yellow.

Recipe: Yellow Squash Soup with Saffron and Farro

Color can hold great power for the cook. It’s important to me. I find it can sway me in a culinary direction I didn’t intend to go in, especially in the summer, when so many brightly colored vegetables are there at my Greenmarket, seemingly just to shock me. Here’s a soup that’s bright yellow. If you love the color yellow as I do, it should be a pleasing soup to cook and bring to your table. It also tastes good. It gets its color from those amazing yellow zucchini I’m finding at my Greenmarket right now. (Get them now before they grow too big.) I can’t believe how incredibly yellow yellow zucchini actually are. They’re yellow just verging on orange, sort of like the color of Meyer lemons—in fact almost exactly that color. I’ve added saffron to this soup to underscore the yellow, and it also adds lovely flavor. I paired the saffron with thyme, since over the years I’ve found that to be an enticing combination. The saffron also turns the potatoes a bit yellow. The only thing that isn’t yellow is the farro, which of course is deep brown. If you would rather have uninterrupted yellow, you could substitute orzo pasta for the farro. That would give you a much lighter tasting soup, but it would be extremely yellow.

Yellow zucchini is a bit bland, a little starchier than the green variety, I find. To balance it I added some lemon zest. You could also “correct” this soup, as they say in restaurant kitchens, with a few drops of lemon juice or a gentle vinegar such as one of the Spanish sherry type, adding it after cooking, when you evaluate the soup’s flavor.

Yellow Squash Soup with Saffron and Farro

(Serves 6)

¾ cup farro
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
2 ¼-inch rounds pancetta, cut into small dice
1 medium summer onion, cut into small dice
2 fresh garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
3 baby Yukon gold potatoes, skinned and cut into small cubes
About 8 thyme sprigs, the leaves chopped
3 cups light chicken broth
5 small yellow zucchini, cut into small cubes
Freshly ground black pepper
About 20 saffron threads, dried if moist and ground to a powder
The grated zest from about ½ lemon
A chunk of Montasio cheese (a delicate cow’s milk cheese from Fruili; grana Padano is a fine substitute—you want something sweet that won’t overpower the delicate flavors of the soup)

Place the farro in a saucepan, and cover it with at least 4 inches of cool water. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down a bit, and let bubble until just tender, usually about 15 minutes but taste it from time to time (I’ve found that some farro cooks faster). Drain the farro, and pour it into a small bowl. Give it a drizzle of olive oil and a little salt, and mix. Set it aside.

In a medium soup pot, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium flame. Add the pancetta, and sauté it until most of its fat has melted out. Add the onion, the garlic, and the potatoes, and sauté for about 2 minutes, just to release their flavors. Add the zucchini, the thyme, and a little salt, and sauté for a minute to coat the zucchini with a little flavor. Add the chicken broth and about a cup of water, and bring everything to a boil. Turn the heat down a touch, and cook, uncovered, at a lively bubble until the potatoes and zucchini are just tender but still holding their shape, about 12 minutes or so. Add the farro, the saffron, a good amount of black pepper, and the lemon zest, and let the soup simmer for a few minutes to release the saffron into the broth.  Add more water or broth if it get’s too thick after adding the farro. Taste for seasoning.

Garnish each bowl with a drizzle of fresh olive oil and a grating of Montasio cheese.