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Trattoria Do Forni, Venice
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Marcella Says...:
Italian Cooking
Wisdom from the Legendary Teacher's Master Classes, with More Than 100 of Her Irresistible New Recipes
Pasta Still Life
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Various Types of Pasta
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La Belle Cuisine
Pasta e Fagioli – Pasta and Bean Soup
 
Essentials of
Classic Italian Cooking
by Marcella Hazan, 1992,
Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf
“The classic bean variety for
pasta e fagioli
is the cranberry or Scotch bean,
brightly marbled in white and pink or even
deep red hues. When cooked, its
flavor is unlike that of any other bean,
subtly recalling that of chestnuts.
In the spring and summer it is available
fresh in its pod and many specialty
or ethnic vegetable markets carry it.
When very fresh, the pods are firm and
brilliantly colored, but even if they
are wilted and discolored, the beans inside
are likely to be perfectly
sound. You can open one or two pods just to be sure.
Cranberry beans can be frozen with great success and are better than the
dried
kind. If your market carries fresh cranberry beans in season, you
could buy a
substantial quantity, and freeze the shelled beans in tightly
sealed plastic
freezer bags. They can be cooked exactly like the fresh. When
fresh cranberry
beans are not available, the dried are a wholly satisfactory
substitute and, if
necessary, one may even use the canned. If you can’t find
cranberry beans
in any form, you can substitute dried kidney beans.”
For 6
servings
1/4 cup
extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped onion
3 tablespoons chopped carrot
3 tablespoons chopped celery
3 or 4 pork ribs,
OR
a ham bone with some lean meat attached,
OR 2 little pork chops
2/3 cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes,
cut up, with their juice,
OR
fresh tomatoes, if ripe and firm, peeled and cut up
2 pound fresh cranberry beans, unshelled weight,
OR 1 cup dried cranberry or red kidney beans,
soaked and cooked as described below *
OR 3 cups canned cranberry or red kidney
beans, drained
3 cups (or more if needed) [beef stock]
OR 1 cup canned beef broth diluted
with 2 cups water
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
Either maltagliati pasta, homemade
[instructions included in cookbook],
OR 1/2 pound small, tubular macaroni
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons freshly grated
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
*
Put the beans in a bowl and add enough water to cover by at least 3 inches.
Put the bowl in some out-of-the-way corner of your kitchen and leave it
there overnight.
When the beans have finished soaking, drain them, rinse them in fresh cold
water, and put them in a pot that will accommodate the beans and enough
water to cover them by at least 3 inches. Put a lid on the pot and turn on
the heat to medium. When the water comes to a boil, adjust the heat so
that
it simmers steadily, but gently. Cook the beans until tender, but not
mushy, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Add salt only when the beans are al-
most completely tender so that their skin does not dry and crack while
cooking. Taste them periodically so you’ll know when they are done.
Keep the beans in
the liquid that you cooked them in until you are ready
to use them. If
necessary, they can be prepared a day or two ahead of
time and stored,
always in their liquid.
1. Put the
olive oil and chopped onion in a soup pot and turn on the
heat to medium.
Cook the onion, stirring it, until it becomes colored
a pale gold.
2. Add the carrot and celery, stir once or twice to coat them well, then
add
the pork. Cook for about 10 minutes, turned the meat and the
vegetables over
from time to time with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the cut-up tomatoes and their juice, adjust the heat so that the
juice simmer very gently, and cook for 10 minutes.
4. If using fresh beans: Shell them, rinse them in cold water, and
put
them in the soup pot. Stir 2 or 3 times to coat them well, then add
the
broth/stock. Cover the pot, adjust the heat so that the broth
bubbles at a
steady, but gentle boil, and cook for 45 minutes to
1 hour, until the beans
are fully tender.
If using cooked dried beans or canned: Extend the cooking time
for the tomatoes in Step 3 to 20 minutes. Add the drained cooked or
canned
beans, stirring them thoroughly to coat them well. Cook for 5
minutes, then
add the broth/stock, cover the pot, and bring the broth/
stock to a gentle
boil.
5. Scoop up about 1/2 cup of the beans and mash them through a food
mill back
into the pot. Add salt, a few grindings of black pepper, and
stir
thoroughly.
6. Check the soup for density: It should be liquid enough to cook the
pasta in. If necessary, add more broth, or, if you are using diluted
canned broth,
more water. When the soup has come to a steady,
moderate boil, add the
pasta. If you are using homemade pasta,
taste for doneness after 1 minute.
If you are using macaroni pasta,
it will take several minutes longer, but
stop the cooking when the
pasta is tender, but still firm to the bite.
Before turning off the heat,
swirl in 1 tablespoon of butter and the grated
cheese.
7. Pour the soup into a large serving bowl or into individual plates, and
allow to settle for 10 minutes before serving. It tastes best when
eaten
warm, rather than piping hot.
Variation with Rice
The same
soup is delicious with rice. Substitute 1 cup of rice,
preferably Italian
Arborio rice, for the pasta. Follow all other
steps as given above.
Ahead-of-time note: You can prepare the soup almost entirely in
advance
but stop at the end of Step 5. Add and cook the pasta or
rice only when
you
are going to make the soup ready for serving.
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