Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [51]
¼ pound bacon chopped very fine
½ cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
⅓ cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
⅓ cup fresh, ripe, firm tomatoes, skinned raw with a peeler, all seeds removed, and chopped, OR canned Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
1 cup dried lentils
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1½ cups short, tubular soup pasta
¼ cup freshly grated romano cheese (see note below)
1. Choose a saucepan that can later contain the lentils and pasta with sufficient water to cook them. Put in 2 tablespoons olive oil, the chopped bacon, onion, garlic, celery, and parsley, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook, stirring and turning the ingredients over often, until the vegetables become deeply colored, about 15 minutes. Add the chopped tomato, stir to coat it well, and cook for a few minutes until the fat floats free of the tomato.
2. Add the lentils, turning them over 3 or 4 times to coat them well, then add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Adjust heat so that the liquid simmers gently, and cook until the lentils are tender, about 25 to 30 minutes. Whenever the water level falls below the 1 inch above the lentils you started with, replenish with as much water as needed.
3. Add salt and several grindings of pepper, put in the pasta, and turn up the heat to cook at a brisk boil. Add more water if necessary to cook the pasta. When the pasta is done—it should be tender, but firm to the bite—the consistency of the soup should be more on the dense than on the thin side.
4. Taste and correct for salt and pepper. Add the grated cheese and about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, stir thoroughly, then take off heat and serve at once.
Note Romano is the most widely available export version of cheese made from ewe’s milk. All such cheeses are known in Italian as pecorino. Romano is, regrettably, the sharpest of these, and if you should come across a better pecorino of grating consistency, such as fiore sardo or a Tuscan cacciotta, use it in place of romano, increasing the quantity to ⅓ cup, or more to taste.
Ahead-of-time note You can make the soup up to this point several hours or even a day or two in advance. Reheat thoroughly, adding water if necessary, before proceeding with the next step.
White Bean Soup with Garlic and Parsley
IF ONE really loves beans, all one really wants in a bean soup is beans. Why bother with anything else? Here there is very little liquid, and just enough olive oil and garlic to help the cannellini express the best of themselves. It can be made thick enough, if you allow the liquid to evaporate while cooking, to be served as a side dish, next to a good roast. But if you like it thinner, you only need add a little more broth or water.
For 4 to 6 servings
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 cups dried cannellini OR other white beans, soaked and cooked and drained, OR 6 cups canned cannellini beans, drained
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 cup Basic Homemade Meat Broth, OR ⅓ cup canned beef broth diluted with ⅔ cup water
2 tablespoons chopped parsley OPTIONAL: thick grilled slices of crusty bread
1. Put the oil and chopped garlic in a soup pot and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the garlic, stirring it, until it becomes colored a very pale gold.
2. Add the drained cooked or canned beans, a pinch of salt, and a few grindings of pepper. Cover and simmer gently for 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Take about ½ cup of beans from the pot and purée them through a food mill back into the pot, together with all the broth. Simmer for another 5 to 6 minutes, taste, and correct for salt and pepper. Swirl in the chopped parsley, and turn off the heat.
4. Ladle over the grilled bread slices into individual soup bowls.
Pasta e Fagioli—Pasta and Bean Soup
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