Cookbook promotes comfort, camaraderie and feeding a community

When it comes to food, there's often nothing as comforting as a piping hot bowl of soup.

And Martha Bayne agrees.

Bayne is the author of "Soup & Bread Cookbook: Building Community One Pot At A Time." She's also the founder of the Soup and Bread night at The Hideout, a music venue/bar in Chicago.

The book is based on those popular Soup and Bread events, held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Wednesday at the club.

"(The events) started in January of 2009 as a way to give people in Chicago something to do during the months of January and February. It was also started to use it to make money for hunger relief organizations," said Bayne, a bartender at The Hideout.

The first event in 2009 raised $100 and benefited the Greater Chicago Food Depository. While Soup and Bread began as a free event, and it still is, good will offerings are requested.

"It's a pay-what-you-can donation," Bayne said. "People can pay $1 or $20." Today, the food depository and other organizations are helped by Soup and Bread gatherings, held January through the beginning of April.

Because Wednesdays were typically slower nights at the club, Bayne thought a food night would be welcomed.

In the last two years, the concept has really taken off.

"I wasn't really expecting it to be so popular," she said.

In addition to providing a bit of soup history, tracing The Hideout's Soup and Bread nights and an eclectic collection of recipes for soup and bread, Bayne also shares a variety of soup stories, lore, social aspects of feeding people and more in the cookbook.

All the recipes, Bayne explains, are from actual Soup and Bread dinners in Chicago as well as Brooklyn and Seattle, which have similar programs.

As Bayne explains in the book, "Soup is an all-purpose dish. It's nutritious and infinitely variable. It can be an earthy meal in a chipped pottery bowl or an elegant palate cleanser, frothed into a porcelain cup. It can showcase the explosive flavor of fresh spring peas and provide refuge for tired celery and stale bread. It soothes the sick, it nourishes the poor — and it can trick children into eating their vegetables. But perhaps more than any other food, soup can also be a powerful tool: drawing people together and helping them reach out to others."

Every week at Soup and Bread nights, the city's well-known chefs and other cooks, from musicians and business people to poets and artists, help out at the club serving the popular comfort food to hungry folk. And it's all a real volunteer effort.

"Some of the people who have contributed are Paul Kahan (of Blackbird)  and "Top Chef's" Stephanie Izard (of The Girl and The Goat)," Bayne said.

Chef Susan Goss and Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's, a hot dog emporium of sorts in Chicago, have also served soup at The Hideout.

The event, Bayne said, isn't a soup kitchen experience, though proceeds from it do help various organizations.

"We're not explicitly trying to serve a needy population. (You might call it) a soup kitchen once removed," Bayne said.

Bayne added she's happy about the tremendous feedback the book has received. And the author said she never tires of talking about soup or the community aspects of enjoying a meal with and helping to feed others.

"I get corny when I talk about it. It's been meaningful to me. It's so gratifying feeding people," she said.

Minestrone

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 to 4 cloves of garlic, minced

4 cups (or so) of cut-up vegetables, whatever you like (can be frozen)

Water

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can red kidney beans

Salt and pepper

Bay leaf

2 cups cooked ditalini pasta

Grated Romano cheese

DIRECTIONS: Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in large pot until soft, over medium heat. Add your vegetables and cover with water. Salt and pepper to taste. Pop in the bay leaf and let cook until the vegetables are soft. Then add your beans, simmer for another half an hour; add cooked pasta and grated cheese. Remove bay leaf. Eat. Easy peasy.

Makes 8 to 12 servings.

SOURCE: Provided by Camille Serverino and featured in "Soup & Bread Cookbook"

Creamy Tomato Soup with Basil

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup olive oil

1-1/2 cups chopped onions

3 pounds tomatoes (cored, peeled and quartered or preserved canned tomatoes)

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup heavy cream

Sprigs fresh basil for garnish

DIRECTIONS:  Heat the butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in onions and cook until tender. Mix in tomatoes and chopped basil. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the chicken broth, reduce heat to low, and continue cooking 15 minutes. Blend soup until smooth. Return to pot (if necessary) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and gradually mix in the heavy cream. Pour soup through a strainer before serving. Garnish each serving with fresh basil.

Makes 10 servings.

SOURCE: Provided by Jessica and Tara Lane and featured in "Soup & Bread Cookbook"