Lovage

I recently bought The River Cottage Cookbook at a charity shop. One of the first recipes I tried was the pea, lettuce and lovage soup. Lovage is pretty hard to come by. I remembered seeing the stuff previously at one of the veggie stalls at the farmer's market. However, I had never used lovage. I assumed it was more of a medicinal herb rather than a culinary one. Boy was I wrong, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describes the taste and smell of lovage in his book as 'curryish.' When I got home from the market I excitedly opened the bag to get the inside scoop on lovage. The scent that rose up from this crumpled little bag was astounding. I made Dermot take a drag of the heady herb. He was just as amazed as I. Yes, it is 'curryish' and so much more. If you see lovage, buy it, the scent alone will inspire you. Whittingstall, points out that only a little lovage is needed to cook with, as it is so potent in scent. The recipe below is verbatim from The River Cottage Cookbook. You can eat this soup hot or cold. I added cream to my soup before serving cold. It was really good and inexpensive to make.
Pea, Lettuce and Lovage Soup

1 medium onion

a little butter or olive oil

500 grams or 1 pound fresh or frozen peas shelled

1 small Cos or Romaine lettuce, or 2 Little Gems, shredded

700 ml good chicken or vegetable stock

5-6 lovage leaves, plus 4 to garnish

salt and pepper

Dash of cream optional

Serves 4

Sweat onion in oil or butter until soft, then add peas and lettuce. Pour over the stock, bring to boil and simmer gently for 4-6 minutes until peas are completely tender. Remove from the heat and add lovage leaves, then blend the soup with an immersion blender. Stop blending when you are happy with the texture. If you like smooth soup blend away, if you like thick chunky soup stop when you reach the desired consistency.
To serve cold, chill in the fridge. To serve hot, reheat stirring occasionally, but do not allow to boil. season to taste, then pour in to individual bowls and garnish with a single lovage leaf.