Quite Good: Bacon and Potato Soup

Recreated from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

     The third day was much the same. We passed the time pleasantly, not in long conversation, but more often watching the scenery, saying whatever happened to come to our minds. That night we stopped at a wayside inn where Reta bought fodder for the horses and a few other supplies. 
     Reta retired early with her husband, telling each of us that she'd arranged for our dinners and beds with the innkeeper. The former was quite good, bacon and potato soup with fresh bread and butter. The latter was in the stables, but it was still a long sight better than what I was used to ...

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I share Kvothe’s fondness for taverns (‘a safe place, a refuge of sorts’), especially at this moment in time with a bellyful of slow-roasted pork and crackling from our local inn. The inn food served up in Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind seems a bit hit-or-miss though, ranging from the ‘quite good’ to the unequivocally ‘lovely’. Here’s what some of the Chronicle's establishments are serving:

At a ‘little dockside inn’
Eggs with sausages and fried potatoes
 
At a ‘slightly grubby in Waterside’
A ‘real breakfast’ of eggs, ham, bread, honey, butter and milk.

From the Laughing Man Inn
‘A whole flask of spiced wine and a loaf of fresh bread nestled next to a turkey breast bigger than both my balled fists.’

At the Horse and Four
A ‘lovely dinner of venison steak with a leaf salad and a bowl of delicately spiced tomato soup. There were fresh peaches and plums and white bread with sweet cream butter’, served with ‘an excellent dark Vintish wine’.  

At a ‘wayside inn’
Horse fodder. Also some ‘quite good’ bacon and potato soup with fresh bread and butter.

At the Waystone Inn
‘Everything’.

Naturally, with such high praise, I felt compelled to make the bacon and potato soup. My father-in-law was the one to introduce me to the idea of lightly mashing the potatoes and, had the wayside inn known his trick, Kvothe’s verdict may have been elevated to a ‘lovely’ there too.  

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 25g butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped 
• 150g lardons (or diced pancetta) 
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 500g potato, peeled and roughly chopped
• salt (optional, to taste)
• pepper, to taste
• 40g parmesan* cheese, finely grated

*or similar hard, granular cheese

Instructions

1. In a non-stick pan, fry the onion, garlic and leek in the butter until they begin to soften. 
2. Add the lardons and fry until they start to brown. Move the ingredients around to make sure nothing sticks and burns. 
3. Add the chicken stock and potatoes. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the potatoes are soft (around 15 minutes). 
4. Remove from the heat, season and serve. Lightly mash the potatoes with a potato masher. The soup will thicken slightly. Add the parmesan. 

Serve with fresh bread and butter.