as my partner/guinea pig said upon tasting this recipe: "escarole makes some good soup!" it's true. i haven't had escarole for years (i kind of forgot about it), but the last time i had it, it was in soup form too. it was a white bean and escarole soup, and it seems that a lot of recipes pair those two ingredients together. i wanted to make an escarole soup that i could eat throughout the week that didn't involve beans because, well, who wants to be eating beans all week--and also because i love the texture of hearty greens in soup and i didn't want another softer texture getting into every spoonful. escarole, kale and other greens that can stand up to sauteing, are amazing thrown into soup at the last minute. they provide such a great bite you could almost describe it as crunchy. but there's a reason escarole and white beans are a favourite pairing. this leaf pairs nicely with something earthy...
so in addition to escarole and basic soup stock ingredients, i decided upon dried porcini mushrooms. earthy? yes. extravagant...?
