Barley, Broccoli, and Cannellini Bean Soup

Here is another soup from the northeastern region of Friuli that relies on the textural satisfactions of barley. Unlike the version, this is a “white” soup, no tomatoes are present, and the base on which its flavor rests is pared down to garlic sautéed in olive oil. I have tinkered a little with it, substituting for cauliflower, which a Friuli cook had used, a southern vegetable, broccoli, whose deeper, lengthier taste seemed to me to find a suitable niche