Potage St. Germain

From Swim Café

“OK, I love the French,” reports Swim owner Karen Gerod, purveyor of this classic fresh pea soup. “French language, French cooking, French kissing – wait, they didn’t invent that. Well, you get my drift. And I love dishes with a short list of ingredients, things so simple they almost don’t need a recipe. Things that make one ingredient sing. So this is my Swim ode to spring.”

Ingredients
6 leeks, white parts sliced thin
1 pound butter (really!)
salt
fresh ground black pepper
4 pounds fresh peas, or frozen petit pois
4 cups vegetable broth
3 sprigs of mint (about 10 leaves)
6 cups half and half

Preparation
Sweat leeks in the butter with the salt until soft. Add one pound of peas–if using fresh, cook until tender, if using frozen do not thaw first. Puree the pea and leek mixture with the mint in batches in a blender until very smooth, adding broth to the batches to thin he mixture. Return to the pot. Stir in the peas, again cooking until just tender if fresh, otherwise frozen. Add the half and half and copious amounts of fresh ground black pepper and more salt to taste. Voila! Bon appétit! Top with sour cream if desired.