Name: Pasta e fagioli with fresh borlotti beans
Yield: Serves 6 or more
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1 sprig rosemary, leaves stripped off the stalk; 120 g pancetta, diced; 6 tbsp olive oil; salt; 4 sage leaves; 1 bay leaf; black pepper; 3 small dried red chillies, minced; 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced; 1 celery stalk, diced; 3 kg fresh borlotti beans, podded, or 3 × 400 g tins cooked borlotti, or 500 g dried beans, soaked for 12 hours; 200 g tinned chopped tomatoes with their juices; good-quality olive oil; 200 g ditali, ditaloni or tubetti; freshly grated Parmesan; 1 carrot, peeled and diced; 1 onion, peeled and diced

Preparation info

Serves
6
or more

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Soho Cooking

By Alastair Little

Published 1999

About

Pasta e fagioli is the only dish that is universally served throughout Italy, admittedly in multifarious styles, but a dish featuring beans and pasta can be found in every region. Surprisingly Soho’s ristorante e trattorie never bothered with it much. The notable exception was La Capannina on Romilly Street, which often offered it with their daily specials: sorry, Piatti del Giorno. Their version was made with pancetta, vegetables and borlotti beans (probably tinned), and was served puréed,