Name: Bergamo-Style Savoy Cabbage Soup with Chickpeas (Zuppa di Verza alla Bergamasca con i Ceci)
Yield: For 4 to 6 persons
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: A medium of head Savoy cabbage; 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 2 ounces chopped pancetta or salt pork; ⅔ cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked, or 2 cups drained canned chickpeas; Salt; Black pepper ground fresh; ¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; ⅔ cup chopped onion; ½ cup chopped carrot; ½ cup chopped celery

Preparation info

For
4 to 6
persons

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Marcella Cucina

By Marcella Hazan

Published 1997

About

Compare this Savoy cabbage soup from Bergamo, in Lombardy, with the one from Romagna. They both start with the cabbage and end with the Parmesan, but what different roads they travel in between! This one is spicier, thanks to the pancetta; more aromatic, courtesy of the celery; and faintly muskier, a quality derived from the chickpeas.

I have left the choice of dried or canned chickpeas to the reader. For reasons I can’t fathom, the canned are exce