White Onion and Truffle Soup

White Onion and Black Winter Truffle Soup

Serves 1 very happily, 2 nicely, 3 if necessary, 4 as a starter.

As with all of my favourite recipes, its beauty lies in its simplicity.  There are only six ingredients.  Three of them are salt, pepper and water, the first two of which are often unnecessary.

4 large brown skinned, white onions

1 pint of water, use decent still spring water if you can (I promise not snobbery…Patricia Michelson taught me the merits…just try it)

1 pint of whole milk

A pinch of salt and pepper if needed

Truffle Paste (watch out for pastes beefed out with mushrooms), or shavings of fresh truffle if you can lay your hands on it!

Method

Peel and roughly chop the onions.  Place in a heavy pan and cover with the milk and water.  Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer.  Cook for about 15 minutes, watching all the time to ensure it doesn’t catch or boil over.  When the onion is translucent and utterly soft, and the milk is frothy and bubbling, turn off the heat and blitz with a bamix or immersion blender to create a velvety soup resembling heavy pouring cream.  Add salt and pepper only if needed.  Spoon into a bowl and smear a generous helping of truffle paste across the surface (let the paste down with a little milk if too solid).  Eat immediately with warm crusty bread and, of course, a lump of cold, hard, salty butter.  Also pretty damned good chilled if you strangely end up with leftovers.