One of our favorite restaurants in Florence is at Ristorante Cibreo. We’ve been several times, and we loved Cibreo’s yellow pepper soup so much that we found the recipe on Chef Fabio Picchi’s website in Italian, translated it, and we’ve been making it at home now for years. This soup is also a great option for our vegan, vegetarian, and lactose-free readers. It’s creamy but there’s no butter or cream in the recipe.
A few tips on this recipe: Make sure you use full-size potatoes. If your potatoes are small, you will want to add a few extra to give the soup enough texture. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, not a Vitamix. We love our Vitamix more than almost any other tool in our kitchen, but it’s too powerful for potatoes. They will turn to glue. Finally, buy a food mill and learn to use it. It’s the easiest way to separate skins and seeds from things like cooked peppers and tomatoes.
Cibreo Yellow Pepper Soup
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 4 yellow bell peppers, seeded, cored, and chopped
- 3 medium russet or baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 celery rib, chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 liter vegetable broth or water
- salt
- pepper
- croutons
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large stock pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery, lightly salt and pepper and sauté until they are golden brown.
- Add the peppers, potatoes, liquid, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer and cook until the peppers and potatoes are very soft, about 45 mins. Remove from heat and let it cool.
- Pass through a food mill on the finest setting to remove skins.
- Return to the pot and use an immersion blender.
- Season with salt and pepper to your liking.
- If you like, serve with a drizzle of olive oil, fresh cracked pepper, and croutons.