Herbed rapini?

Brought home some left-over rapini from Santorini a bit ago; put it in the freezer with the plan to make some soup out of it when soup weather came around. Made a soup last night with garlic sauteed in olive oil, chicken stock, white beans, potato, and chopped up rapini.

Felt like just salt and pepper [and/or red pepper] wasn't going to be enough to round out the soup, that it needed some kind of an herb. Looking at the beans & potatoes, I put a little bit of rosemary in. No. Not the right thing. The rosemary and the rapini did not get along. At all.

What herb, if any, would have enhanced the soup? What herb goes with broccoli? Or escarole? Or rapini? I thought about using thyme, but I'm not convinced that would have been any better. Parsley would work, but I don't imagine it would actually bring much to the party.

What am I missing?

Giovanna

I would think some fresh oregano would work very well. I love it with peas or green beans.

I think thyme is probably the best bet with the rapini, but I'm not, personally, convinced it needed anything. Especially if there were herbs used when you made the stock, like some parsley or thyme.

I do think rosemary very rarely works in a broth/soup.

If you wanted to add some body and fullness to the soup, you could simmer a bit of parmigiano reggiano rind in it.

G.,

I never really reflected on this issue but doing so now, I realise that a) I generally don't use any herbs in preparations that feature bitter greens centrally and b) that tendency is for the most part true in traditional Italian cooking. In general, the Italian use of herbs is very judicious and there are lots of dishes which properly don't have any herbs in traditional cooking but in American versions of them do. Be that as it may, in a dish such as the one you describe, a little fresh oregano would proably be okay but I would be inclined to leave herbs out and to include a good pit of peperoncino with the garlic as the base of the dish. I would also finish the dish at table with a drizzle of first rate, fruity oil. What more could one want?

Antonius

Giovanna wrote:What herb, if any, would have enhanced the soup? What herb goes with broccoli? Or escarole? Or rapini?

It's not an herb, but I typically give bitter green vegetables a jolt of fresh lemon.