With Felicia Mohan
Felicia Ciaramitaro Mohan serves this butternut squash and leek soup to her guests every Thanksgiving. It is very popular, delicious and you can learn to make it very quickly.
After peeling and cutting up the squash you should cut and clean the leeks. Unfortunately the growing method for leeks causes them to build up dirt inside and requires that you cut and clean them carefully. To clean them you first trim off the root end, leaving about 1/4 inch of the base, which is the white portion. Next you should take off any of the rough outer leaves and throw them away. Then trim each of the darker parts of the leaves down to the light green portion (this is the more tender portion) and leave only an inch or two of green. You may want to reserve the darker green leaves you cut off for other uses.
To finish cleaning you need to slice the leeks down the center and rinse under cold running water. This will remove the dirt and sand. Be sure that you get in between all of the leaves. Drain and dry and then rough chop your leeks.
One of the secrets to getting all of the taste out of the leeks is to sauté them in butter for about five minutes before adding the chicken stock. Add the fresh thyme and let it simmer. When the squash and leeks are fork soft you want to puree them with a hand blender or another blending machine. Keep on the soup base on the stove over low heat, being careful not to cook the soup. Add heavy cream and milk along with the rest of the seasonings. Felicia likes to garnish with chopped chives and parmesan cheese.
Ingredients
8 cups peeled and cut into 1 to 2 inch chunks
5 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups chopped leeks cleaned well (white parts only)
6 cups chicken stock (1 large can)
3 sprigs fresh thyme plus ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Garnish:
½ cup fresh chopped chive
Freshly Grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
1. Melt butter in a large pot over med/high heat.
2. Add leeks and continue cooking over medium /high heat, about 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Place squash into pan and stir all ingredients together.
4. Add 1 teaspoon salt, chicken stock, fresh thyme, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes or until squash is fork tender. Turn off heat.
5. Using a hand mill, puree until smooth (If one does not have a hand mill, puree mixture in a blender or Cuisinart in batches then return to pan) Note: The soup can be prepared to this point up to 2 days ahead, refrigerated, and finished when ready to serve at a later date.
6. Add milk and cream to warm puree mixture.
7. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt, pepper and dried thyme
Carefully ladle soup into serving bowl and sprinkle top with 1/4 teaspoon chopped chives and 1 teaspoon grated cheese.
Enjoy!
Recipe courtesy of Felicia (Ciaramitaro) Mohan, 2011.
From "Food For Thought" Column by Heather Atwood:
Felicia Mohan lives in a sparkling new house in Gloucester, and has twin 11-year-olds: Amanda, playing 12-year-old tennis and ranked No. 32 in New England, and B.J., a catcher for AAU Baseball who will play in the Gloucester All-Star 11-year-old team. Felicia looks like a beautiful, modern mother, struggling to get her kids where they need to go while keeping up with life at home, but Felicia is also adamant about preserving her family's Sicilian heritage, particularly the dishes her grandmother, another Felicia, prepared.
Felicia Mohan's grandfathers were named Joseph Salvatore Ciaramitaro — both of them, spelled the exact same way. One Joseph fished first from his boat The Benjamin and Josephine, which was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Maine, and then he fished from his Benjamin C, named after his father-in-law, Benjamin Cucuru. Later he founded Capt'n Joe's Lobster Co. on the wharf in Gloucester, now run by Felicia's brother, Joey, and cousin Frankie.
Felicia's other grandfather owned Pat's Center Grocery, that not only sold groceries but provided all the fishing boats with food for their long trips, delivering the "speza," as the supplies were called, to each boat before it left port.
Grandpa with the wharf was married to Felicia's namesake. Holidays at this Felicia's house began a full week ahead as all the women in the family gathered at her home, which had two full kitchens, to cook together. When school let out at 3, the children went straight to Grandma's house that week because that's where their mothers were cooking. Not only were these women making all the traditional Italian holiday foods, from appetizers such as octopus salad, a standard which the men insisted upon at every holiday, to a wealth of Italian cookies, homemade bread, and New World foods such as pies, but the women were also making ordinary dinners those weeknights for all their husbands and children.
Felicia and Joseph have passed away. Now, holiday meals are at young Felicia's, where 35 to 40 people come to celebrate. Felicia, like her grandmother, still sets a formal table with china and linen; her custom-built table seats 25, with two more tables in the great room for overflow, replacing her grandmother's enormous table that started in the kitchen, extended through the dining room, the hallway and ended at the living room.
In her large, creamy, new kitchen, Felicia still makes dishes like braciole, spiedini, and olive gonzathe. She makes videos for this newspaper showing how to prepare her grandmother's special bread crumbs, "mudiga," with chicken and steak. This past December, Felicia gathered all the cousins together to make their great-grandmother's Santa Lucia dessert, "cuccia," a vanilla pudding made with wheatberries which the playful great-grandmother had always encouraged the children to eat in a race.
Contact Heather at heatheraa@aol.com. Her blog is at gloucestertimes.com/foodforthought
