Venetian bean soup

Name: Venetian bean soup
Yield: Feeds four
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: salt and freshly ground black pepper; 8 cups chicken broth or water, boiling; 1 garlic clove, crushed; 1 onion, finely chopped; 3 tbsp olive oil; 1½ cups dried borlotti beans; extra virgin olive oil; 1 cup of broken tagliatelle or small soup pasta; 4 canned roma tomatoes, chopped; 2 tbsp grated Parmigiano

Preparation info

Feeds
four

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Old Food

By Jill Dupleix

Published 1998

About

A rich and rustic pasta e fasoi from the Veneto region of Italy that combines pasta and beans to form a lush, velvety texture that is the soul of good country cooking. Don’t forget the benediction: a final swirl of extra virgin olive oil at the end for extra richness.

Ingredients

1½ cups dried borlotti beans
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion

Method

Soak beans overnight in cold water.

Heat olive oil in a large pot, add onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add drained beans and boiling broth or water, cover and cook gently for one hour. Add tomatoes and simmer, covered, for another hour.

Remove about half the beans and mash them, then return the paste to the soup, along with the pasta. Cook for 10 or 15 minutes until pasta