A big bunch of rapini on sale means you've got left overs after you've made my Italian meatloaf. And leftovers means soup, which I consider fundamental to the menu everyday, despite the comments of a young French visitor to Michigan a few years ago who scoffed at me saying, "Soup is for old people!" Hot liquids have been shown in studies to satisfy and turn off the hunger impulse, which makes soup, as well as hot liquids like green tea, a daily imperative if you are trying to watch your calories.
Soup from scratch is easy, but requires a little planning. The plan always begins with the cheapest chicken I can find. The right price is about 79 cents per pound, and the right quantity is about five pounds. But I usually buy fifteen or twenty pounds and throw the chicken in five pound flats into my freezer for future use. With five pounds you can make copious amounts of broth quickly, and better and much cheaper than the best broths and stocks found on the shelf in aseptic packaging.
I use a poultry shears to cut the chicken into individual pieces as necessary, and I layer them skin side up in a large stainless steel roasting pan. Under the broiler they go for about fifteen minutes, and then on bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Roasting the chicken first intensifies the flavors, and when it comes out it goes right into the crock pot on low for about eight hours, covered in fresh, clean water. Alternatively, you can use a large dutch oven with a heavy lid in a gas oven set on warm for eight hours if you prefer. Don't forget to scrape the roaster pan clean into the crock pot or dutch oven. Every extra bit of the caramelized stuff just adds to the flavor of your broth.
At the end of eight hours, scoop out the chicken from the crock pot into a large stainless steel stock pot. Then strain the broth from the crock pot through a colander or sieve into heatproof bowls and allow to cool a while before refrigerating overnight. In the morning you can easily skim off the hardened fat from the surfaces leaving some very fine broth behind. Use this to start your soup, in combination with an equal amount of fresh water.
Back to the chicken in the stock pot. Using your poultry shears, cut up all the chicken into pieces, making sure to cut the bones in half. Cover with two quarts of water, bring to a boil, and simmer on the bubble for at least one hour, two if you've got 'em. The marrow of the chicken bones will produce a second batch of broth which is creamy and gelatinous. Strain and cool as with the first batch, and supplement with equal parts water when making your soup. The chicken meat, by this point, has had it. It won't even satisfy the cat, so just pitch it.
You can get much fancier in the making of broth by adding onions and garlic and other vegetables to the roasting pan to make your broth more complex if you wish, but for people in a hurry this bare bones method works very well without too much fuss. And did I mention how cheap it is?
