Pasta and Beans soup

Zuppa di Pasta e Fagioli

Today, in Central Florida is a cloudy and windy day, maybe perfect for a pasta and beans soup. This soup is an inexpensive vegetarian meal without a lot of ingredients but so flavorful that even the meat-eaters will love it. It is an extremely healthy and nutritious dish thanks to the high quantity of beans.

During the cooking time, the pasta will absorb most of the bean liquid so that when it’s cooked, the soup will be almost creamy.

Preparation time: about 20 minutes

Cooking time: from 1 to 2½ hours (about 30 minutes if you use canned beans)

Serves 5–6

Ingredients:

½ lb. (220 g.) dry cannellini beans

1 cup water, plus enough to soak and cook the vegetables and beans

9 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2 fresh tomatoes, finely chopped

3 tbsp. dried oregano

2–3 celery stalks, finely chopped

About 2 tsp. salt

Black pepper to taste

Hot pepper to taste (optional)

½ lb. (approximately 250 g.) tubetti pasta

2 tbsp. fresh minced parsley (optional)

Method:

1. The day before making the soup, soak the beans. After inspecting and rinsing them, transfer to a large bowl, cover with cold water (three times the amount of beans), and leave overnight. In the morning, rinse and drain.
2. Put the beans in a large pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer until tender (about 1–2 hours, depending on the kind and the size of the beans). Throughout the cooking time, check the beans occasionally, ensuring that they remain covered with water, and add more water if necessary (make sure you don’t add too much water. At the end of the cooking time, the simmering liquid must be only enough to cover the beans).
3. Meanwhile, in a pan, combine 5 tbsp. of the extra virgin olive oil with the garlic, tomatoes, oregano, celery, 2 tsp. salt, black pepper, hot pepper, and 1 cup water. Cover and cook for 10–15 minutes.
4. When the beans are cooked, add 1 spoonfull to the mixture of garlic, tomatoes, oregano etc. and with a blender, reduce to a puree. Add the puree to the pot with the remaining beans, stir and bring back to a boil. Then, add the pasta and more water if necessary; the simmering liquid must be only enough to cover both pasta and beans, so make sure you don’t add too much water. Cook over medium low heat and stir constantly until the pasta is al dente.
5. Turn off the heat, add the remaining 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, and stir well.
6. Let the soup rest for 3–4 minutes. At this point, taste it and add more salt if needed. Serve in individual bowls and top each serving of pasta with a sprinkle of black pepper and parsley.

Notes:

• You can use other kinds of dry beans (navy beans, white kidney beans, pinto beans) in place of the cannellini beans. If you’re in a hurry, it’s possible to use 1 lb. (450 g.) canned beans, rinsed and drained; in that case, you don’t need to soak and boil them, so you can skip steps 1 and 2. Also, at step 3, reduce the quantity of salt to 1½ tsp.
• You can use other kinds of Italian small pasta in place of the tubetti, such as conchiglie, ditaloni, linguine, spaghetti (broken), or small ziti.
• Instead of the method given here for soaking the beans, you can use the quick-soak method: After washing and rinsing the beans, transfer to a large pot, cover with hot water, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain with a colander, rinse, and return the beans to the pot. Add clean hot water, cover, and cook until tender.