Lebbencsleves is a Hungarian tradition. Made with lebbencs tészta, the wide irregular Hungarian pasta that resembles Italian lasagna noodles. I make my own pasta, so I am not sure how packaged lasagna noodles would work. A good alternative is fresh pasta from a specialty store or an Italian deli. It is worth the trouble; this is a very tasty soup.
HUNGARIAN PASTA SOUP
2 thick slices of bacon, diced1 stick of frozen Hungarian or chorizo sausage*, sliced
1/2 cup finely diced onions
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 batch of lebbencs pasta
3/4 Tbsp Hungarian paprika
2 red potatoes, chopped into very small cubes
1/4 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 large or 1 whole Roma tomato, chopped
1 sprig of flat leaf parsley
3-1/2 cups homemade chicken stock
• Freeze the sausage first.
• Make the lebbencs tészta next.
• Knead the flour, eggs and a pinch of salt into very hard dough. Texture should be very smooth.
• Roll the dough very thin and dry it for 2 hours.
• Cut into short, wide strips.
• In a medium Dutch pot, fry the diced bacon over low heat.
• *To remove the skin hold frozen sausage under hot tap water and pull off the skin. Otherwise, you will have sausage casings swimming in the soup.
• Add the sliced sausage and sauté on low heat for a couple of minutes.
• Add the onions and the garlic and fry until soft.
• Add the pasta and fry it, stirring until it starts to get a little color.
• Sprinkle with Hungarian paprika and stir.
• Add the chopped potatoes, yellow pepper and the tomato.
• Add the leaves of a sprig of flat leaf parsley and finally pour in the chicken stock.
• Taste it and adjust the salt content [the stock will have salt in it already] an add ground pepper to taste.
• Bring soup to full boil, reduce and simmer for five minutes.
• Cover pot and remove from heat.
• Let the soup steep for 15 minutes and then serve.
