KITCHEN ADVENTURE: SOUP IS GOOD FOOD. In which I make an onion soup.

Day One: Make steamed broccoli in the microwave, using the juice from a lemon. Eat that! Put the broccoli bits and bobs and the squozen lemon halves in a pot, barely cover with water, add some dried bay leaves, and make stock: Bring to a boil, then simmer about 40 minutes. You want a very lemony stock. Refrigerate overnight.

Day Two: Slice some onion. (I used one large yellow onion for one person.) Put water on to boil. Saute the onion with chopped garlic until it’s browned but not burnt. I cooked it in a mix of butter and olive oil; I’m sure you could use just butter, not sure if it would work as well with just oil. This part required more stirring than I’d anticipated–this is not really a soup you can make without paying any attention.

When the water boils, add some pasta–I used fusilli, which were a perfect shape, small and stubby and ridgy. Small shells might also work well. You don’t need a lot of pasta. Cook until you’re about halfway to al dente, then drain the pasta and put it in the pan with the onion. Add enough stock for the pasta to soak it up and keep cooking. (I added stock twice–added more when the pasta soaked up the first schloop of stock.) Add a lot of black pepper, and cook until the pasta is ready. Pour soup into bowl, top with grated Parmesan cheese, say grace, and plant your face in the bowl.

the verdict: This was delicious. A great balance of onion, garlic, pepper, lemon, and Parmesan. I admit that it was more labor-intensive than I’d expected, so I’m not sure how often I’ll make it (it isn’t at all difficult–I’m just lazy), but it tasted great.

bonus tip: In general, you can get great results from pasta sauce by 1) cooking the pasta only halfway, 2) draining the pasta but reserving a couple cups or so of its cooking water, 3) putting the half-cooked pasta in the saucepan, and 4) cooking it the rest of the way in the sauce and as much of the reserved cooking water as you need to keep the sauce from drying out. This I learned from Christopher Kimball, “The Kitchen Detective,” in Year’s Best Food Writing 2004. He says: “The pasta and sauce will likely look drier than normal but will be moist and flavorful upon tasting.”