White Bean Soup with Pasta and Potatoes

This soup always reminds me of a trip I made with some friends to Carrara to see the marble mines. It was winter, the sky was white and gray with fog and clouds, and the mountains of exposed marble were also white. None of us felt thrilled by all this cold and damp paleness; we were chilled and hungry, and there didn’t seem to be a place to eat. Finally we found a restaurant where some men were eating. There were no lights on, which should have told us it wasn’t open to the public, but we w