Pasta Fagioli
This literally means pasta and beans and is a very thick soup, sometimes it is even pureed (when made with white beans) but there's no one way which is right. It's a very popular Tuscan soup where they like the flavour of oregano in their pasta fagioli. (Silvana does not use oregano, or any herbs in her Abruzzo version.) This soup is best made with fresh borlotti beans which have a short season at the market in summer in Australia.
Traditionally it would be made in a terracotta container with a small opening, called a 'fagioliera' - a bean pot like a jug. The fagioliera would cook slowly on the fire and every now and then given a shake to stop the beans sticking. You can use a heavy bottomed pan with a lid.
Serves 6
Ingredients
1/2 kilo of fresh borlotti beans
one large red onion, Spanish
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery
100 grams of smoked pancetta in one piece (not chopped)
100 ml olive oil
a big handful of parsley and fresh basil leaves
a good pinch of oregano and marjoram
2 litres of chicken
or meat broth or water
Pasta
1/2 kilo of flour
3eggs
Method
Make the pasta in the normal way
but do not cut into uniform pieces. Keep rough shapes.
Put the chopped onion, carrot, celery, smoked pancetta and oil into a heavy bottomed pan. Cook very gently until the pancetta reduces and all the juices come out. Then add the peeled beans. Stir through and then add the broth (can use vegetable broth or just plain water you don't really need the extra richness of meat broth). Season with salt and pepper and the herbs. Cover the pot and let cook very slowly for a couple of hours. Try after an hour and see if the beans are cooked,
To finish when the beans are cooked, add the pasta to the pot. Home made pasta cut into small rough shapes (this can be pre-fried as in Silvana's method below) then added to the beans and left to boil for a few minutes. Keep stirring until the pasta is cooked. Switch off heat and then serve after a couple of minutes. Add chopped parsley and basil to finish
Silvana's method
She uses the same ingredients as above - celery, carrots, onions and fresh pork rind but no herbs. However she adds tomato and parsley and pre-fries the pasta, as described here "We fry all this separately, boil the beans, then I used to remove the rind and vitamize the sauce, add tomato and parsley. That's all - then mix with the beans. Then you add the pasta, which has been fried first in a little bit of olive oil - not too much, just brush the pan with oil - and then add to the fagioli and finish cooking in the sauce. That's fantastic".
|
