Roasted potato fennel soup

I'd bought a lot of red potatoes on a whim, so I decided to make something new and winter-friendly: roasted potato fennel soup. (Ina, obviously.) I've been trying to cook "in season" fruits and vegetables, and in January, pretty much the only thing available is onions, potatoes, and fennel - everything in this soup!

You start by roasting four pounds of quartered red potatoes. These looked pretty amazing when they were done, and I probably could have eaten a few without putting them into the soup. While they are roasting, chop up four cups of fennel and four cups of onions. You sweat it all in a little bit of olive oil until they are soft, and then add in the potatoes.


Then, you put in lots of water (or stock, but I used water) and boil for an hour. After it's ready, you pour in some heavy cream and stir it up.


Awesome, right? As a last step, you're supposed to run the soup through a food mill or a food processor to squish it up. I have neither, so I used my Oxo potato masher and mashed up the potatoes, onions, and fennel.

Oh, and just for good measure, I shredded some pecorino romano cheese atop the soup, along with cracked black pepper.


This isn't the most bold flavor, but its quiet, subtle tones were pretty delicious. I kind of wish I had a big gooey grilled cheese sandwich to dip in it. It's been a week of soups - I re-made my favorite soup ever, Ina's Italian wedding soup. We've got tons of delicious lunches now!