Pasta e fagioli alla veneta

This is a very thick peasant soup. Practically every region in Italy has its own variation. The recipe below, made with borlotti beans, is from the region around Venice, where the best borlotti beans grow; the variation from Naples is made with cannellini, the local beans. Maltagliati means ‘badly cut’ and refers to rolled-out pasta dough, which in the Veneto region is cut into small diamond shapes.

This soup is made with dried beans, or fresh beans when they are in season