Barilla Ditalini Soup w/Barley & Potato

My roommate and I were grocery shopping the other day and pasta was on sale.  My roommate came across these cute little noodles:

They're called Ditalini

 He insisted we buy them.  I asked what you're supposed to make with them since they're so small.  Lo and behold, there's a recipe for soup on the back of the box.  Not only that, but we already had or were already buying almost all of the ingredients.  The only thing we really needed was vegetable broth.  We discovered it's WAY cheaper to buy vegetable bouillon than actual vegetable broth, so we bought some of that to test.

Here's what you need:

• 1 glove garlic, chopped
• 1 onion, diced (I used a medium sized yellow)
• 4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil + some for drizzling
• 3 quarts Veggie Broth (or the equivalent in bouillon and water)
• 3/4 cup Barley
• 1 cup Ditalini Pasta (I used 1 1/2)
• 2 small Carrots, diced (mine were kind of big)
• 1/2 cup Celery, diced (2 stalks for me)
• 1 medium 6oz peeled potato, diced (just pretend I weighed mine and it was 6oz)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp Parsley, chopped (or I used dried because I already had it)
• 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, shredded (or just grate a bunch on top until it looks delicious)

In a large pot, cook the garlic and onion in the olive oil over medium heat about 4 minutes.  Add the broth and barley, bring to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.  Since I was using bouillon, I added the water then let the bouillon dissolve in before adding the barley.

While that's going, there's time to do some dishes and chop your veggies.  After the 30 minutes, add the pasta, carrots, celery, and potato. Season to taste with the salt and pepper, and cook for 6 minutes.

Is that a Cucto knife?  Why, yes it is!  Good eye!  If you'd like your own awesome set, I know someone that can sell you some!

This is where it got a bit complicated.  After the 6 minutes of cooking, the directions say to let the soup rest for 20 minutes then stir in the parsley.  Well, my roommate came in and started helping.  I'm not sure when he started timing the 6 minutes.  When I time pasta, I wait for the water to re-boil before starting.  He kind of started between when the pasta was first added and when it started to boil again.  Also, it just said let "rest" and we debated if you turn the heat all the way off and if it needed to be completely removed from the hot burner.  He ended up putting the soup back on a low heat to make sure the pasta was thoroughly cooked.  We also added the parsley a little early since it was dried rather than fresh.

Once it's done, ladle it into a bowl, drizzle with EVOO and grate cheese to your liking on top!

It was yummy!!!

It says it makes 5 servings, but we each had a full bowl and I filled 2 tupperware containers full which probably have at least 2 more bowls in each.  Ok, maybe it's only 1 more serving than it said, but it seems like a lot.  We froze one for later and put one in the fridge for sooner :) 

A few Melinda-isms:

1)  Yes!  There's celery in there!  Why is this interesting?  I've never liked celery.  I'm slowly learning though.  At work once a co-worker gave me a celery stick with cream cheese on it.  It wasn't terrible.  And lately my roommate has been getting me to eat celery with peanut butter.  On a related note, I've discovered I don't hate broccoli as much as I thought I did.  It just has to be steamed just right.  It can't be raw, and it can't be cooked until it's mushy.

2)  I was sad because we didn't have any bread to go with the soup, but I remembered that we have Club Crackers.  I usually don't like to crumble up crackers into my soup, but these were really good in it!  Just as long as you only did one at a time so they don't get all soggy, but that's just a personal preference.