What to do with all of these pumpkins now?

Instead of dressing them up how about using them for making Pumpkin Soup. Well maybe it’s a little too late for that but you can still eat them. Yes they are edible. Ever have a pumpkin pie?

There are plenty of those types of recipes online that you can find but here’s something new. I just made this new soup last week and it was great! So how about making my Super Pumpkin & Veggie Soup?

And there certainly are a lot of veggies in this healthy delicious soup. And no this is not a blended soup with a creamy texture. It is a basic hearty rustic soup. But I’m warning you in advance to please be very careful when it’s time to cut the pumpkin up. It’s easy to cut yourself and slip with the knife since the rind is very thick.

How to cut up a pumpkin and prep it for cooking

1. First you’ll need a thin sharp long knife. Wash the pumpkin well.

2. Then cut in half. Use only half or much less for the soup depending on the size.

3. Next you’ll scoop out all the seeds and glop and get rid of that stuff.

4. Now the tricky part. Be very careful not to cut yourself. Cut the half of the pumpkin into either 4 or 6 pieces.

5. Then you’ll “carefully” cut the edible part out of the rind which is very firm and can be a little difficult to separate.

6. Discard the outer rind and save the good and tender orange part from the inside.

7. Dice it up into about ½ inch cubes and get it ready for cooking. Follow the recipe below.

Mario’s Super Pumpkin Soup with Veggies

Ingredients
Pumpkin (2 cups diced)
Potato (1 or 2 cups diced)
Onion (1 cup chopped)
Beet (1 cup diced)
Zucchini or Squash 2 cup sliced or diced)
Carrot (1 cup diced)
Broccoli (1 cup chopped)
3 drops of your favorite hot sauce
Organic soy sauce or organic Tamari sauce (6 to 8 drops)
Himalayan or Sea Salt (season to taste or about 1 teaspoon)
Water (approx. 4 to 6 cups) only 4 if using chicken broth
Optional chicken stock broth (approx. 2 cups)
For vegetarians you can skip the chicken broth of course.

You can use a little more or less of any of the veggies depending on your preference. The measurements are an estimate. By adding a little more potato can give it more of a firmer texture and is delicious.

Directions
1. Place about 4 cups water in large soup pot. After adding vegetables make sure that the water covers them all.
2. As the water is heating dice the beet and add it to the water first. The water does not need to be boiling.
3. As the beet is in the water getting heated up, cut up all other veggies. The beats take about 10 mins longer to cook.
4. Add the diced and chopped veggies to the pot along with the optional chicken broth, salt, hot sauce, and soy sauce.
5. Stir well about every 10 minutes and taste after about 45 minutes to see if the beet is soft enough to chew. It should be okay if it’s a little on the firm side that’s how beets are.
6. Do a quick taste and see if everything is done.
7. Don’t cook the soup too long or the other veggies will turn to mush unless you like them that way.
8. Add final seasoning of salt or whatever you prefer.
9. Top with your favorite toppings. For example green onion or grated Parmesan cheese. Maybe even a little butter.
10. Enjoy.

This is a great healthy soup packed with the vitamins and minerals from all of these veggies.
Great for when you don’t want to eat a heavy meal and are in the mood for a hot bowl of vegetable soup.

When the soup is finished cooking you should not really be able to taste the hot sauce. If you do you added too much. It’s only used for a little flavor that’s why the recipe only calls for 3 drops.

This soup goes very well served with some fresh bread.

If you like Italian food check out Mario’s best selling Italian Cookbook.

See the cookbooks page here.

This no knead pizza dough is not really something you can’t figure out without me, but I can share some tips to make some great pizza dough without kneading it and making a mess out of everything.

Don’t have an expensive stand mixer or too cheap to buy one? Then use a mixing bowl and a tablespoon. I will show you how it’s so easy!

I tried something new the other day. I made a Sicilian Pizza with medium crust.

Medium is suggested because it definitely wasn’t thin crust but at the same time not as thick as the Sicilian crust I usually make. How did I do this? I used 3 cups of flour instead of 4 cups. It came out perfect actually!

You can use a strong metal tablespoon with this no knead method. It’s great if you don’t want to get your counters or hands dirty when making the pizza dough. If this sounds good to you then you should love this method! The dough came out smooth and perfect. The end result was a Sicilian Pizza just like the restaurants serve but with the crust just a hair thinner. It gave it a nice crunch while maintaining plenty of thickness.

Only a Few Kitchen Tools are Needed for Pizza Dough without Kneading

How About Some of These Tips?

I don’t claim to know everything about tomato sauce, but since I’ve tried so many types in the past I thought I’d share some things with you.

Hungry? This Pizza Should Satisfy the Hungry!

I don’t make this pizza too often because it’s got Sliced Deli Turkey Meat on it, and as you probably know, deli sliced meats have nitrates or other artificial preservatives that aren’t so great for us. But this Turkey Pizza rocks! And I guess a little once in a while won’t hurt.

Now if you prefer a healthier pizza, you can use switch the meat to any other organic free range raised meat. For example, you can totally change the flavor of this one from a salty turkey flavored pizza to another type of flavor for example like a BBQ Chicken Pizza instead. To do that all you’d need to have is some freshly cooked, diced chicken breast and have some BBQ sauce on hand. Then you’d just drizzle a little BBQ sauce directly on top of the chicken pieces only and it is delicious. That’s what I call my Sicilian BBQ Chicken Pizza, which is also good.

But I think you should try this BRAZILIAN SICILIAN TURKEY PIZZA first! The last few times I made this I changed it up a little bit. Instead of the olives I made it taste more like a fake Canadian bacon and pineapple just by using the turkey with pineapple. You almost couldn’t taste the difference.

Click to see the whole assembly process with detailed pictures >>

When it comes to making your own tomato sauce the opinions can be overwhelming. Tomatto or Tomotto,  the suggestions and voices from family or friends can vary greatly. And on top of that you have the celebrity chefs who also disagree sometimes. You know what I say? Everyone’s got an opinion. Well where I come from, we say it a little differently.

Here’s a regular Sicilian Pizza I made a while ago. I call it super because of the taste. I make these in many varieties. Sometimes with just sauce and cheese, and other times with a variety of toppings. They’re fun and easy. I’ll give you some tips and tricks in this step by step tutorial.

This Sicilian Pizza, regular New York Pizza, Chicago Deep Dish, and Calzone recipes are all in both books, Italian Cookbook and Pizza At Home DIY.

Check out my my recipe club it’s free to join and I’ll give you my secret sauces book. JOIN MY FREE CLUB to get my book secret ingredients for FREE.

Italian Omelet Built for Two

If you’re hungry this Italian omelet will take care of that problem for you. It’s super easy to make and the recipe is below. It’s basically an “Omelette Parmigiano Italiano!” There are only a few ingredients: Eggs, Mozzarella Cheese,