Soupe aux Cerises (Cherry Soup)

This cherry soup from the Franche-Comté in eastern France is not, as it may sound, a dessert, but a first course. The food that follows, writes Pierre Dupin in Les Secrets de la Cuisine Comtoise (1927), must be heightened in taste, such as a main course of game and then strong cheese. Pitting cherries, especially without some sort of cherry pitter, is a…