When the scent of fennel seed fills the kitchen co-mingling in the air with basil-walnut pesto bean soup I feel the divine making itself known in the immediate. It is like knowing the smell of your beloved; you know when they are present. The aroma of very wholesome vegetables and herbs, beans and grains reminds me that we are bound to our food in a kind of sacred marriage. What we eat today becomes our blood within hours. We are interwoven with the whole of creation that is captured in plants. Grains and vegetables eaten together ground us and connect us with the whole cosmos in a way that no other food can.
Should you find yourself estranged from anything, including yourself, and feeling decidedly not in the flow of the universal river of life, find your center, or maybe just your feet, again in a bowl of rich pesto broth over pasta with an artichoke infused with fennel alongside. Don't be surprised when the whole angelic realm joins you for dinner. Here's how to make this simple meal:
Boil some organic white pasta in a little lightly salted water until just tender, drain, set aside.
The artichoke is a large flower bud. It's tender heart drizzled with olive oil and lemon with cracked pepper cannot be replicated in all of nature. Boil a pot of water with a teaspoon of fennel seeds and a lemon half, juiced squeezed in the water then throw in the rest, and a pinch of white sea salt. Allow the seasonings to flavor the water while you prepare the artichoke. With scissors trim the thorns from the leaves and remove about an inch of the top with a serrated knife. Trim the stem even with the bottom. Drop the artichoke in the boiling seasoned water and submerge for a few seconds; it will bob back up somewhat. Cover. Simmer at least thirty minutes. Test the bottom with a fork, continue cooking as necessary; drain and cool a bit when tender. Do not overcook or it will be mushy. Serve with a dipping bowl of high quality olive oil with a pinch of sea salt, fresh lemon juice and freshly cracked pepper. To eat: Peel each leaf off and dip the meaty part into the olive oil and scrape off with your upper teeth. Do not eat the leaf itself. When at the core remove the small leaves and the hairy covering of the heart. Divide the heart into smaller pieces and put into the olive oil; add more with lemon and pepper if too low (should be dripping off each morsel). Eat your way into heaven.
Make the pesto by processing one cup of basil and one cup of toasted walnuts, five tablespoons of olive oil, a clove of garlic and half teaspoon of white sea salt. Use three tablespoons pesto for the soup and store the rest in a jar with olive oil to cover; use within four days.
Make the soup by adding one cup of thinly sliced leeks, one stalk celery and one medium carrot chopped to two cups water and a pinch of white sea salt; simmer for ten minutes. Add a generous handful of green beans, trimmed and halved and one drained and rinsed can of organic white, kidney or pinto beans; cook an additional ten minutes. Add pesto and chopped parsley and salt to taste. Serve over pasta, but not too much as to maintain soup quality of the dish.
(Of course, all bean dishes are best the second day. At the second serving, skip the pasta and add a side of authentic sourdough bread for dipping into the broth.)
This meal begins with the artichoke followed by the soup.
Note: The pesto soup is from One Peaceful World Cookbook, Alex Jack and Sachi Kato. The artichoke is slightly adapted from my mother's kitchen; she cooked it with half an onion and half a lemon, a celery stalk cut into quarters, and one teaspoon whole coriander. Rowena Gibbons is a certified health coach, macrobiotic teacher and practitioner, and cooking instructor.
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