South Tyrolean Creamy Herb Soup: Kräutersuppe

The South Tyrol (German: Südtirol) is a region of northern Italy with a complicated demographic history, as Germans settled in part of the region about 1500 years ago. The area later was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a confusing title that was really the name used for the Old German Empire (as French philosopher and writer Voltaire said in the mid 1700s, the Holy Roman Empire was "neither holy, Roman, nor an empire"). The area eventually became part of the Habsburg family lands (the Habsburgs were a German noble family), but after the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War One, Italy received the South Tyrol for having fought on the Allied side during the war. The northern parts of the region were exclusively German for all practical purposes, but the population was more and more mixed (German and Italian) the further south in the region one went, with some areas having Italian majorities. The whole matter was very contentious, but eventually the region, known in Italian as "Trentino Alto Adige," was granted self-governing rights on local matters, but within Italy. German is the language of every day communication for much of the population, except of course in Italian areas, and the German dialect there is a part of Austro-Bavarian.

 

I love this soup and you can mix up the herbs however you choose. The South Tyroleans use local cheese of their own for garnishing the soup, but such cheeses are not readily available, so I substituted Parmigiano-Reggiano, but you can certainly use non-Italian made parmesan cheese.

 

Ingredients:

 

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup chopped onion

3 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons chopped dill

2 tablespoon snipped chives

1/2 tablespoon thyme leaves

2 tablespoon basil

1/2 tablespoon majoram (or oregano)

2 tablespoon parsley

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cream

grated cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano or parmesan for garnish

mixed chopped herbs for garnish

In a heavy bottom pot or pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onion and saute until the onion is softened, then reduce the heat to low and quickly mix in the flour, stirring constantly, to make a roux. Slowly add one cup of the broth, stirring constantly, until the broth begins to thicken; then continue adding broth a little at a time, stirring constantly until the broth is gone. It is not supposed to be thick, just slightly thicker. Stir in the herbs and let the soup just begin to simmer. Pour the soup in a blender (or you could use a stick blender), blend until smooth. Return the soup to the pan mix in the nutmeg, ground black pepper, salt and cream. Let the soup heat up, but do not boil. Top with some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fiddle-The origin of this word is unclear. There is a case for it being from Latin, but there is also a case that Latin got it from Germanic. First there is the Medieval Latin word for a stringed instument, "vitula," which is the source of the words "viola" and "violin." Latin already had a word "vitula," which meant "a female calf" (it is in the ancestral line of "veal"), but how a word for calf came to be a word for a stringed musical instrument is a major question ... although perhaps the Latin word of that meaning was borrowed, and the rendered spelling of the borrowed word coincidentally matched the other Latin word for "calf," and the ancestry of the Latin word for the musical instrument is uncertain, although some have attempted to tie it to Latin "vitularia," which meant, "to celebrate in a happy manner," apparently derived from, or related to, the Roman goddess "Vitula," supposedly a goddess of celebration and victory, but with a very sketchy history. On the other hand, forms of "fiddle" abound in the Germanic languages, with Old English having had "fiðele" (equivalent to "fithele"), which then became "fedele/fydyll/fydel," before the modern form. Old High German had "fidula," the ancestor of modern German "Fiedel;" Low German has "Fiddel," Dutch has "vedel," Old Norse had "fiðla" (=fithla), with Icelandic having that same word, Swedish has the contracted form "fela" and Norwegian has the contracted form "fele." (NOTE: Some suggest Old Germanic had a form like "fiþlo" (=fithlo), but that is far from agreed upon.)