You read right. I am not kidding you. This is the easiest and most exotic soup you can make. Well no, not as exotic as a cold soup can get but well, when did I ever say this is a cold soup? This is a hot soup and it must be eaten with breadsticks or herbed garlic bread on the side. And then you most go forth into the world and spread its wisdom to all non-believers.

I am a believer. Pasta is heavenly. Add pesto and it assumes Godlike proportions. And potato? Well. What can I say. My DNA is made up of potato.

May the joint power of potato and pasta and pesto grant you immortality.

Potato Pasta Pesto Soup

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Recipe Source: I have no idea, this is a classic pasta soup and it may be Italian but who knows? I made it off my head, trying to get close to the taste of the soup I had once had in some highly secret location. It worked!

Serves: 2

Soup Ingredients:

1 potato, skinned, cubed into small cubes

1 big onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped (you won’t see any in mine because I did not have it but it is good to add)

1/2 cup frozen sweet corn

6-7 French beans, chopped

1/2 cup pasta (I used shell mac, but you can play and use bow-tie or penne or orecchiette – although a word of caution: use pasta that can hold the soup – not straight and untextured pasta like linguine or spaghetti or angel hair – use textures)

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Olive Oil

Salt

For the pesto:

3/4 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves

2-3 walnuts

2-3 big cloves of garlic

2-3 black pepper corns

A dash of salt

2 tsp olive oil

For the garnish:

A few sprigs of fresh curly or flat parsley. It’s all the same, seriously.

2 tbsp grated parmesan or natural cheddar cheese

First off, heat your saucepan, drizzle some olive oil in, throw in the potatoes, beans, carrots, sweet corn, onion and toss about nicely. After a minute of this, when the onions have turned translucent, add the salt and pepper. Mix well.

– Now add the milk. Stir in everything well, adjust salt. Now cover and cook for five minutes. My saucepan descended from the heavens and has a cavity going all around so I can pour water into the cavity and cover and cook – this ensures faster cooking and nothing will ever stick up inside. Of course, with a soup, nothing CAN stick but well…I feel good knowing that I have a funky saucepan.

– While your soup base is boiling merrily away, grind the pesto into a smooth paste – add some water if you must but strictly a dash, no more. Keep aside.

– Now in the soup, add the pasta. Cover. Let it boil another 6-7 minutes.

– Uncover, add some more water if you must but stick to just a little. The pasta should be close to al dente by now. Now act fast, throw in the pesto, stir it in gently keeping the heat on low. Cover. Allow the soup to simmer on low heat for 2-3 minutes.

– Turn off heat. Allow the soup standing time of 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, grate the cheese. Toss in the cheese and fresh parsley (chopped if you must) and then serve immediately. You can adjust salt again at this point but remember, the cheese has salt and you have already added some salt before. Go by your saltiness preferences. Peace.  And joy.

Reema Prasanna is a personal and corporate baking coach from Mumbai, blogs about her experiments in the kitchen, records recipes from India, and in another parallel dimension, she is also a Search Engine Marketing Professional, fiction writer and maniacal utensil & kitchen tool collector.