Steps

• For the velouté, I used all the vegetable leftovers from previous preparations: a piece of celeriac, a piece of bell pepper stripped of the panels, the outer leaves of a fennel plus the stems and fronds of three fennels, a handful of arugula, a carrot, four cherry tomatoes, the outer layers of a red onion, and some parsley stems.

  

• Chop all the vegetables (except the mushrooms) and cook them in a pot with enough water to cover them.

  👉 I didn’t weigh the water, I eyeballed it without overdoing it; I recommend cooking with a semi-closed lid and checking periodically, and topping off with hot water if necessary. The goal is to get a thick purée, so it’s best not to overdo it with water.

  Cook on low heat until all the vegetables are soft enough to be blended with an immersion blender.

  👉 Cooking time may vary depending on the vegetables used and the size of the pieces. I took about an hour and a half because the fennel stems were somewhat tough.

  

• Once cooked, blend with an immersion blender directly in the pot until you get a purée.

  In a separate pan, briefly sauté a clove of garlic with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (optionally, add a piece of chili pepper). Transfer the purée to the pan, let it sauté to absorb flavors, and continue cooking for a few minutes if it needs to thicken.

  

• Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms and quickly cook them in a small pan with a teaspoon of oil and half a clove of garlic. Just a few minutes are enough; they should remain firm.

  
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• During the final stages of velouté preparation, boil water for the pasta.

  Cook the pasta, drain it, then assemble the dishes as follows:

  · Place a layer of velouté on the bottom of the plates,

  · Gently lay the rigatoni on the velouté,

  · Add a spoonful or two of velouté over the pasta,

  · Distribute the mushrooms over everything, arranging them as decoratively as possible.

  Finish with a drizzle of raw oil, chopped parsley for decoration (I used the parsley stems to stay on the recycling and anti-waste theme 😉).

  Finally, a sprinkle of pepper if desired, and if chili pepper wasn’t used earlier.

  

• 👉 The choice to cook the mushrooms separately was deliberate; I thought they would add an extra flavor to the dish in this way. If added to the mixed vegetables, their aroma would be lost. Additionally, they provided a decorative touch to the dish, albeit minimal. 😌

  It is a simple dish, I would say humble, made only of pasta, vegetables, and extra virgin oil, but it gave me a lot of satisfaction: apart from the small detail that we liked it, 😊 I really enjoyed cooking it, I like giving leftovers a second chance!

  And I had fun trying to plate everything in a way so that the somewhat dull color typical of vegetable soups wasn’t predominant. For the series being happy with little things! 🤗