Stir-crazy cooking: Mamma Mia! Leonardo soup cracks the lockdown code

A cold spring day, and I'm thinking soup for dinner to satisfy the hungry crew.

There's a lovely recipe for a sublime carrot-orange soup I'm leaning toward, but the 9-year-old hates it. The cupboard is rather bare, and no way we're going to the grocery store with COVID-19 and a chill drizzle outside. Fortunately, a brilliant Renaissance hero is riding to the rescue.

I call him Leonardo riffing on a New Yorker article about “Roberto” the lusty soup with a life of its own. Except Roberto calls for canned beans and sausage, which are on the grocery list, not in the pantry.

Improvise, Leonardo whispers in my ear. So, rooting in the fridge and cupboards, we find bacon, carrots, red onion, and the all-essential garlic. Chicken stock is stocked, and the canned tomatoes are ready for anything.

What about beans? “Search your fridge,” Leonardo intones. And there - lying forlornly at the bottom of a pile of bagged rice and oatmeal is a sad little pouch of dry lentils. Eureka.

The garlic, onion and bacon are perfuming the kitchen. In goes some broth, the tomatoes and lentils. The key is to cook the lentils just long enough so they are tender but not soggy, which could morph your minestrone-variant into well - lentil soup.

The entire process took about an hour, with downtime as the soup cooked. I found some stale buns and pan-fried them with butter, olive oil and garlic for pandemic bruschetta.

The kid loved it, and there are endless variations. Dump the meat and throw in celery and Parmesan. Add some noodles but not too many. Or, use up some endangered cold cuts as I did in my second version (shown in photos).

It's all delicious, and maybe one more reason for Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile.

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Leonardo da Soupi</b>

Clove or two of garlic, chopped fine

1/3 cup diced red onion

4 slices of bacon, chopped

2 diced carrots

28-ounce can of tomatoes chopped up

4 cups of chicken broth

½ cup of lentils rinsed

Two to three cups of water

½ cup frozen peas

½ cup egg noodles broken up (optional)

Grated Parmesan (optional)

1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon Italian spices (optional)

Throw some olive oil in a good pot. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the onion, carrot and bacon, mixing until brown.

Dump in 3 cups of broth and half the can of tomatoes plus lentils. Add salt, pepper and seasoning to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer, adding tomatoes, broth and water as it thickens.

After about 15 minutes, start testing the lentils to see if they're getting tender. This is a good point to add noodles if you are using them, but watch so soup doesn't get too thick.

Once the lentils are ready, (which should be in 20 to 30 minutes) throw in the frozen peas and cook for a bit longer.

Dish out and grate Parmesan on top.

Serves 6