Yesterday’s Soup Just Became Today’s Pasta Sauce

People who write about cooking (ahem) love to extol the benefits of a big pot. A big pot of black beans. A big pot of short ribs. An extra-big pot of tomato sauce. Big pots are weeknight dinner saviors, because they get you ahead, and they feed you again and again and again.

That’s all true. But what is less frequently talked about is the downside of the big pot, and that’s getting sick of eating what the big pot holds. How much marinara can a person eat in a week before feeling like he’s stuck in a dystopian nightmare where the only form of food is take-out from the red sauce joint? I call this Big Pot Fatigue, and with marinara it’s not as bad as it could be—you can at least use the stuff in different ways (here we list eight). Where Big Pot Fatigue really sets in is with dishes that aren’t as easily repurposed.

I’m talking about you, soup. Yeah, you’re warm and nourishing and pretty easy to make, but damn, if I have eat you three days in a row I begin to feel an existential dread. Is this all there is?

So imagine the relief I felt when I came across a page in Lior Lev Sercarz’s new book, Mastering Spice, that suggests turning soup into sauce.

This curried pumpkin soup is about to become a curried pumpkin penne, amirite?

Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Nathaniel James, Food Styling by Anna Hampton

The idea starts with a blended vegetable soup, something like this creamy carrot number. Eat the soup until you can’t stand it anymore, then, when you have at least three cups left, follow Sercarz’s instructions:

“Boil one pound pasta until it is just shy of al dente (usually about one minute less than the package directions). Meanwhile, heat the three cups of creamy carrot soup over medium heat until bubbling. Drain the pasta and add it to the soup, tossing until the pasta is evenly coated and al dente. Divide among plates, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with one tablespoon poppy seeds.”

This (brilliant) idea can be applied to any blended vegetable soup. In Abra Berens’s Ruffage, pasta is tossed with beet puree and topped with golden raisins and poppy seeds, and what is beet puree if not the base of a soup? (Also, how did I miss the trend of poppy seeds on pasta?)

This upcoming soup season, I’ll make soup pasta out of this carrot-fennel soup. I’ll toss spaghetti with this cauliflower soup and sprinkle the soup’s garnishes (hazelnuts and bacon) on top. In the summer I can see this cold zucchini-basil soup being delicious on room temperature pasta. And in a move that might cause a new rip in space and time, I might make tomato soup and toss the extra with pasta. Will that be tomato soup pasta? Or just...pasta with tomato sauce? I’ll let you know.

Not every soup can be turned into a pasta. Smooth, blended soups are talked about most, because they’re essentially already in sauce form, especially if they’re on the thicker side, which will help them cling to pasta. (If you want to use a soup that’s thin, let it simmer on the stove for a while until it reduces and thickens.) Though, call me crazy, but I think some unblended soups may work, too. A creamy seafood chowder pasta sounds sort of delicious. And I love beans and pasta, so would this lentil-coconut situation work? I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Soup season is upon us, which means that Big Pot Fatigue is not far behind.