Alphabet Soup from Isa

"Isa Does It" is a great name for the new cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and this time she really does it great with this Alphabet Soup from her blog and the book.

Since she prefers we not go spreading her recipes around will-nilly on our personal blogs instead of linking to her pages, I'll leave it at that. Besides, her web pages usually have dozens of comments by PPKers who've already made the dish and they have some fantastic tips.

As for my changes:
I used the whole 2 quarts of broth. I'm glad I did, because on the second day there was hardly any liquid left because it was all absorbed into the pasta.

Naturally, I sauteed in a bit of broth, not oil.

I used about half a bag of baby carrots, which came out to almost 2 cups when chopped.

I couldn't find any whole grain alphabet pasta so used the regular Ronzoni semolina kind. In fact, I couldn't find any small pasta in whole grain in either of 4 grocery stores or the local HFS. Next time I make this I'll either use some of the Bob's Red Mill whole wheat couscous I have or find a mail-order source for some whole grain alphabet pasta. Anybody have a source?

Since Jeff Novick is against agave, I used honey. Next time I may skip it all together.

My son takes better photos with his phone than I get with my camera :(

I had a small bowl the first day for my own late lunch, just to taste it; hubby and I each had 2 big bowls for lunch the next day, and we still have enough for another lunch, so we'll finish that up over the weekend with some red pepper & onion sandwiches.

A delicious soup, better tasting than the stuff in a can I grew up with, but a bit labor intensive. Isa says the recipes in her book are perfect for busy weeknight dinners. Well, maybe if all the chopping and dicing was done ahead of time. Then it's easy to just toss together and cook. When I make this again, and I will, I'll do what I did this time - make it up the day before I plan on eating it so all I have to do is heat and eat.