Badische Kartoffelsuppe

Badische Kartoffelsuppe belongs to the southwest, along the Rhine where Baden looks across to Alsace and cooks a little softer than Swabia next door. Same potato, different argument. Swabia often leaves the soup chunkier and sharper, with vinegar or sausage doing more of the talking; Baden purées it smooth, finishes it with parsley, lovage, marjoram, and cream, and lets the herbs carry the lift. Im Süden anders.

This is weeknight food and larder food. Potatoes from the sack, leek and carrot from the drawer, a bay leaf, stock from bones if you've done your work. Nicht aus dem Glas. A broth cube will give you salt and noise, not body. The soup needs a quiet stock because the potato thickens it, and the herbs need room to speak.

The deciding technique is simple: cook the potatoes until they collapse, then purée only after the bay leaf comes out and the vegetables are fully soft. Blend half-cooked potato and it turns grainy; boil it hard after cream goes in and it tastes flat and split. Runter mit der Temperatur. Warm the cream in at the end, then add the fresh herbs last because boiling kills the green smell you put them there for.

If you add Wienerle, slice them and warm them in the finished soup. Don't boil them to death. They are there to make the bowl a meal, not to take over the pot. Schön ist, was schmeckt.