What's Pressoir Cooking - Soupe au Pistou

The traditional Pistou Soup 

by Victoire Chabert
May 26, 2022

Today, I invite you to cook the real Soupe au Pistou to celebrate the beginning of summer. It is a great classic of traditional Provencale cuisine. It is a dish that we prepare all together and we enjoy it every year. An easy summer soup, with fresh summer vegetables delicious both hot and cold. 

Here is the ancestral and almost secret recipe...

Ingredients for 6 people (we usually make a larger quantity so we can freeze it, it will be just as good)  

600 grams (21 ounce) of white coco (white beans)

300 grams (10.5 ounces) of green beans

3 carrots

2 potatoes

2 zucchini

1 onion

2 tomatoes 

Tomato concentrate

2 cloves of garlic 

2 handfuls of small pasta like ‘coquillettes’

Herbs such as thyme and laurel

Salt and pepper

Grated or whole Parmesan cheese

For the Pistou sauce

6 cloves of garlic

80 mL (5.6 tbsp) olive oil

1 large bunch of basil

Salt and pepper

Instructions: 

1- Hull the beans, peel all the vegetables, rinse and dice them and set aside. (Do it with your family or friends, it will be less time consuming and more convivial!)

2- In a pot, brown the onions in a little olive oil and add the tomato paste.

3- Place your beans, your coco, your carrots, your tomatoes, your herbs and the minced garlic and fill it up with water. Add salt and pepper.  

4- Cover the pot and let it cook on low heat for about 45 minutes.

5- While everything is cooking, prepare the pistou with the garlic and basil in a blender and add the olive oil a little at a time to make it a creamy texture. I like to add a little grated Parmesan cheese to the Pistou sauce.

6- After 45 minutes of cooking the soup, add the potatoes and zucchini and a sprig of basil and simmer for another 20 minutes.

7- Put 1/3 of your Pistou in the pot and set it aside the rest for the finishing dressing. Also keep some of it to serve at the table.

8- 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the pasta and continue to cook. Don't hesitate to taste each vegetable of your soup regularly to check the cooking.

9- Serve the soup, add the Pistou and the Parmesan cheese and enjoy.

In terms of wine, Pistou soup calls for a Côte-de-Provence rosé such as a Bandol or Cassis but you can be tempted by other combinations such as a light dry white or an Italian red!