Italian

Pasta e fagiole (pasta and beans)

Name: Pasta e fagiole (pasta and beans)
Yield: 4
Cuisine: /italian
Ingredients: 250g dried medium white beans, such as cannellini, soaked overnight if possible; Kosher salt or sea salt; 6 garlic cloves; 4 carrots, scrubbed, roughly chopped; 1 leek (white and pale-green parts only), halved, rinsed and roughly chopped; 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve; Freshly ground black pepper; 1 smoked ham hock; 1 400g can whole peeled tomatoes; 1 bunch kale, leaves stripped off stems; 1 or 2 Parmigiano cheese rinds (optional); 2 bay leaves; 250g small pasta, such as ditalini; Parmigiano, crusty bread; Crushed chilli flakes

Rate now

https://healthimprovements.info/recipes/pasta-e-fagiole-pasta-beans/39ppoe1n — Pasta e fagiole (pasta and beans)

Jump to recipe

by Carla Lalli Music

Apr 22, 2019

A comforting recipe best served with crusty bread. This is an edited extract from Where Cooking Begins: Uncomplicated Recipes to Make You a Great Cook by Carla Lalli Music © 2019. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Available now at booktopia.com.au.

250g dried medium white beans, such as cannellini, soaked overnight if possible
Kosher salt or sea salt
6 garlic cloves
4 carrots, scrubbed, roughly chopped
1 leek (white and pale-green parts only), halved, rinsed and roughly chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
Freshly ground black pepper
1 smoked ham hock
1 400g can whole peeled tomatoes
1 bunch kale, leaves stripped off stems
1 or 2 Parmigiano cheese rinds (optional)
2 bay leaves
250g small pasta, such as ditalini

To serve

Parmigiano, crusty bread
Crushed chilli flakes

Method

1.

Put beans in a large pot, cover with water by 2.5cm, and bring to a boil over high heat. As soon as water comes to a boil, turn off heat, stir in a palmful of salt, cover pot and let beans sit for 1 hour.
2.

In a food processor, combine garlic, carrots and leeks, and pulse until vegetables are finely chopped.
3.

In a soup pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat and add chopped vegetables. Season generously with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring often, until vegetables start to sweat out some of their liquid, 3-5 minutes. The goal at this stage is to slow-cook the sofrito (vegetable sauce) until vegetables are very soft but do not take on any colour. Cover pot and cook over medium-low heat, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until sofrito is softened and juicy, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat if mixture starts to brown. Add ham hock and cook uncovered, stirring and scraping surface of pot every 5 minutes, until sofrito is starting to brown and has lost at least half its volume, about 10 minutes more. Add beans and their soaking liquid, tomatoes, and kale, and season again with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then add Parmigiano rinds, if using, and bay leaves. Reduce heat to a very gentle simmer. Cook soup with lid askew until beans are very tender, 1-3 hours, depending on the size and age of the beans. Add water or stock as necessary to keep beans submerged by at least 2.5cm.
4.

In a pot of well-salted boiling water, add pasta and set a timer for 2-3 minutes less than packet instructions (pasta should be very al dente). Drain pasta and add to soup, then taste and adjust seasoning. (Do not try to skip a step by cooking the pasta in the soup. The noodles will absorb all the liquid and the liquid will be thick and gummy.) Serve with Parmigiano for grating over, bread for dunking, olive oil for drizzling and crushed chilli flakes.