Meatless Monday: Celery Root Soup

It's only recently that we have come to love celery root, or celeriac as it is also known. It's pretty ugly, and as the saying goes, you eat with your eyes first. But we have found this funny-looking root vegetable to be quite delicious in dishes such as our Potato, Leek and Celeriac Gratin. Then again, cheese can be like bacon in that everything-tastes-better-with-it kind of way. Regardless, we bought a couple of celery roots the last time we were at the farmers market and were looking for something new to do with them.

Rewind to Christmas, when Amy received this beautiful set of cookbooks from her cousin J (Thank you so much, J! We love you!). The cookbooks are particularly meaningful as they contain recipes created by the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy of Rome, where Amy was lucky enough to study in the summer of 2004 via a Fulbright Grant. She has so many wonderful memories of her time at the AAR and her other adventures in Rome, and while this particular program did not exist back then (darn it!), Italian, or more specifically, Roman, food is definitely something close to her heart and soul. Suffice it to say, she loves these books and she has been flipping around in them almost daily since she got them. 

Now back to the celery root thing. Since the volume on soup, Zuppe, is arranged by seasons, one of the first things she had looked at was the chapter focusing on winter, and there it was! Celery Root Soup (or, rather, passato di sedano rape), a velvety soup with beautifully rich flavors of celery, leek and potato that was as comforting as it was nourishing. Just lovely. And perfect for Meatless Monday.

Now, normally, we would post the recipe for you. But, as is noted on their website, "The American Academy in Rome is a private institution supported by gifts, grants and membership fees of individuals, foundations, corporations and leading colleges, universities and arts and cultural organizations." And purchasing items in their store, particularly these amazing cookbooks, is part of that support. So we don't want to do anything to take away from that. Perhaps this post and its photographs will inspire you to consider buying the book from AAR (or on Amazon here) and enjoying this and 49 other amazing soup recipes.

Potato, Leek and Celeriac Gratin

Ah, gratin. You demon of the side dish world. So full of cream and butter. So unapologetically decadent. So tantalizingly indulgent. We can't resist you. We call you "vegetables" but deep inside we know the ugly truth. We'd likely be better off eating a Big Mac. Still, there you are on our table, beside a rotisseried chicken. Welcome back. Be sure to visit again soon. 

PS You look very nice in your beautiful baking dish! (Thanks, K!)

Potato, Leek and Celeriac Gratin

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 large branch fresh rosemary

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 leek, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced

2 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 celeriac (celery root), peeled and thinly sliced

4 ounces grated Gruyere cheese

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons herbs de Provence

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the cream, rosemary and garlic bubbles start to form along the sides of the pan. Turn off heat and set aside. Melt butter in a small skillet and sweat the leeks, seasoned with a pinch of kosher salt, taking care not to brown them (about 5-6 minutes); set aside. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Layer 1/3 of the potato slices, 1/3 of the celeriac slices, 1/3 of the cooked leeks and 1/3 of the gruyere. Season with salt and pepper and continue the process a second and third time. Strain the cream through a fine mesh sieve and pour it into the dish over the vegetables. Sprinkle top with herbs de Provence. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes, until bubbly. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes, until top is golden brown.