Name: Maltese Widow’s Soup
Yield: serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: 2 cos lettuces, outer leaves removed, the heart sliced; 400 g/14 oz fresh peas, shelled weight; 1 curly endive, chopped; 1 kohlrabi, peeled and diced; 1 celery stick, trimmed and sliced; 4 to 6 eggs; 50-75 g/2-3 oz ricotta; 4 to 6 gbejniet; 200 g/7 oz baby spinach; 200 g/7 oz cauliflower florets; a small bunch of borage; 50 g/2 oz butter with a little extra virgin olive oil; 2 onions, sliced; sea salt; 2 potatoes, peeled and diced; black pepper

Preparation info

serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Scented Kitchen

By Frances Bissell

Published 2012

About

I came across another use for borage in Malta, where the flowers grow in abundance wild along stone walls and it is traditional to strew it on bowls of ‘widow’s soup’, soppa tal-armla. This is a substantial vegetable soup, almost a stew, in which a small fresh farm-made cheese called gbejniet is also served.

This recipe, suitable for widows, married couples, bachelors or anyone else you happen to invite for lunch, is based on the version in the Caruana Galizia sisters’