A couple of weeks ago, we had the Food Network on TV and Rachel Ray was making Pasta e Fagioli. She used several ingredients that we had in our cupboard, like canned cannellini beans, tomato, and pasta so I put it on my list of future meals. A couple weeks later, when the temperature dipped into the single digits, I thought it would be a good time to make a hearty soup and I remembered the Pasta e Fagioli. So I pulled out a few cookbooks to find a recipe that looked good to me. As usual, "The Joy of Cooking" was one of the first. Then I grabbed Barbara Kafka's "Soup - A Way of Life" and then "Trattoria" by Patricia Wells. Rachel Ray had mentioned that when she first made the soup on her show, she didn't include tomato and a bunch of people wrote in and told her that she should have. On her latest show, she did include tomato and she was pretty sure that she would get as many letters as before but now saying that she shouldn't include tomato. As Patricia Wells says, "There are about as many versions of pasta and bean soup as there are cooks". I decided to go with Patricia's version, which did not include tomato.
My rule of thumb for most recipes is to follow it exactly the first time and then vary it as you wish after you have experienced the original, as intended by the author. Patricia Wells did not have any canned ingredients in her version so I prepared a grocery list for Tyler. We didn't have dried cranberry beans, tiny dried Italian pasta, like ditalini or stars, or pancetta (ours is a mostly vegetarian household), so those went on the list. I carefully specified two ounces of pancetta, exactly enough for the recipe so we didn't have an excuse to use meat again. I also added a bunch of celery with leaves to the list, which I usually buy except for last week when celery hearts were on sale. The soup recipe called for a rib of celery including the leaves as well as a bouquet garni that included celery leaves, so we'll just have to eat more celery in the next week or two.
Last night was the night. I am still recovering from hand surgery so Tyler pretty much made the whole thing. (I, of course, directed the show). Our local Coop did not have dried cranberry beans so we used dried cannellini beans, which we soaked in boiling water for about an hour before "we" started cooking. Tyler sautéed the pancetta with onion, carrots, garlic and celery (with leaves) in olive oil, and then added the beans, water and bouquet garni. After simmering for about a half hour, he added some salt and then simmered for another hour. He then removed a couple of ladles of the beans and veggies putting them in a bowl on the side. Using our awesome immersion blender, he pureed the remaining soup until almost creamy. He added the beans and veggies back in and brought the soup to a simmer and adding the pasta to cook for another ten minutes. (The Coop didn't have ditalini so "we" broke vermicelli into small pieces as a substitute, as Patricia Wells suggested).
Time to eat! The soup was served in bowls with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil on the top. It was just wonderful! We are looking forward to trying other versions of the soup at some of our local Italian restaurants, but it couldn't possibly be better than this!
By the way, Tyler didn't get two ounces of pancetta (surprise!). He got about five ounces. Whatever will we do with the rest? Check in again to find out...
One more footnote: play Dean Martin's version of "That's Amore" while you cook.
My rule of thumb for most recipes is to follow it exactly the first time and then vary it as you wish after you have experienced the original, as intended by the author. Patricia Wells did not have any canned ingredients in her version so I prepared a grocery list for Tyler. We didn't have dried cranberry beans, tiny dried Italian pasta, like ditalini or stars, or pancetta (ours is a mostly vegetarian household), so those went on the list. I carefully specified two ounces of pancetta, exactly enough for the recipe so we didn't have an excuse to use meat again. I also added a bunch of celery with leaves to the list, which I usually buy except for last week when celery hearts were on sale. The soup recipe called for a rib of celery including the leaves as well as a bouquet garni that included celery leaves, so we'll just have to eat more celery in the next week or two.
Last night was the night. I am still recovering from hand surgery so Tyler pretty much made the whole thing. (I, of course, directed the show). Our local Coop did not have dried cranberry beans so we used dried cannellini beans, which we soaked in boiling water for about an hour before "we" started cooking. Tyler sautéed the pancetta with onion, carrots, garlic and celery (with leaves) in olive oil, and then added the beans, water and bouquet garni. After simmering for about a half hour, he added some salt and then simmered for another hour. He then removed a couple of ladles of the beans and veggies putting them in a bowl on the side. Using our awesome immersion blender, he pureed the remaining soup until almost creamy. He added the beans and veggies back in and brought the soup to a simmer and adding the pasta to cook for another ten minutes. (The Coop didn't have ditalini so "we" broke vermicelli into small pieces as a substitute, as Patricia Wells suggested).
Time to eat! The soup was served in bowls with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil on the top. It was just wonderful! We are looking forward to trying other versions of the soup at some of our local Italian restaurants, but it couldn't possibly be better than this!
By the way, Tyler didn't get two ounces of pancetta (surprise!). He got about five ounces. Whatever will we do with the rest? Check in again to find out...
One more footnote: play Dean Martin's version of "That's Amore" while you cook.
No comments:
Post a Comment