If you still don't know about bobici soup, now is the right time to recover
In that wonderful area of continuous borders that goes from the Karst to Slovenian Istria, a special soup has always been eaten, bobici, especially in the months of August and September, when one of its main ingredients is “deflated”, that is fresh.
What is bobici soup
This soup takes its name from its main ingredient, bobici, which in Slovenian is i corn kernels. But in general it indicates all cereals, in fact, for example, this dish can also be found with barley. It is usually prepared in summer, between August and September, when the corn is "deflated", that is fresh; to this are added potatoes and beans, usually pinto beans, always in season. For all these reasons, the bobici soup is almost never missing on the feast of the Assumption, on August 15, when all the main ingredients are fresh and in full production; but in reality it is also often found in the following months, with corn and dried beans. There are mainly two versions: in the Karst and Trieste the vegetarian version is more widespread, while in Istria and Slovenia the one with bacon or cooked ham (which is never lacking in the area), considered "essential to give a little flavor," even just in the sauté . In short, it is a very nutritious and complete dish, which everyone likes, even children; so much so that for many bobici are "the soup of the heart, the one that most of all remembers childhood". But the most attentive gourmets will not have escaped the similarity with another similar dish of the area: the jota or jotta.
The jota or jotta
Jota is a soup that is always widespread in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Istria and Slovenia, where it is found in different variants. With bobici it has two ingredients in common: i beans and the potatoes. Then, in the Trieste version, for example, there are also the capuzi garbi, which would be i sauerkraut, In that of Gorizia the sour turnip (brovada), while in Slovenia some parts of the pig, usually rind, bacon, ham or ribs, always for flavor.
Today they are both two dishes much appreciated and requested in farmhouses and in more traditional places; but in the past this was not the case, they were considered poor dishes, of peasant origin, so much so that women said "simpri jote, simpri jote and mai polente e lat, simpri jerbis, simpri jerbis and mai un biel fantat", that is "always jota, always jota and never polenta and milk, always herbs, always herbs and never a handsome boy . And it is from one of these women, over ninety, that we got the original recipe for bobici: «I don't make jota, she's from other areas, here I only make bobici.
The bobici recipe
Be patient if the doses are not precise, but it is a recipe with the classic quantities "by eye"!
Ingredients
½ kg of corn kernels (milk cob)
300 g of fresh beans
3-4 potatoes
bacon to taste
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
¼ kohlrabi
celery to taste
parsley to taste
to taste bay leaf
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Method
Cut the pancetta into cubes and fry until the fat has melted and the meat is browned. Add garlic and onion, fry and sprinkle with the residual water from cooking the beans. Add half of the cooked beans and chop with the hand blender until you have a smooth puree. Add the rest of the cooked beans, bobici, carrots, kohlrabi and parsley. To taste, add water, salt and pepper. Bake for another ten minutes and serve with bread.
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