Name: Pasta e Fagioli (Venetian Bean and Pasta Soup)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 75 g/3 oz fatty pancetta; 50 ml/2 fl oz/¼ cup olive oil or 50 g/2 oz pork fat; 1 celery stick, chopped; 1 carrot, chopped; 1 onion, chopped; sea salt and ground black pepper; 150 g/5 oz tiny pasta (rice-grain size); 300 g/11 oz/1¾ cup dried beans, preferably lamon or borlotti, soaked overnight in cold water (alternatively, use 3 x 400 g/14 oz canned beans); 1 litre/1¾ pints/4 cups good meat stock

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Italian Regional Cookbook

By Valentina Harris

Published 2017

About

Every region of Italy has a version of this old recipe containing the cheapest of ingredients: a handful of pasta, a few vegetables, a little fatty pork, beans and some good stock. It varies from one place to another, but is very much representative of the peasant style of cooking in the Veneto, which contrasts sharply with the elegant dishes of the aristocracy. Just as Tuscany favours the borlotto bean, the Veneto too has its favourite variety for this dish, the lamon bean, which may be ha