Monday, November 28, 2011

Pasta and beans

The weather is still mild but autumnal enough to make us seek comfort in these Italian dishes. After all the turkey and stuffing, a pasta e fagioli dish from Domenica Marchetti's The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy was just the ticket.

This recipe, in her winter section, used the heirloom Christmas lima beans I bought recently at La Cuisine in Alexandria. She just calls for the soaked beans to be dumped in the pot along with the finely chopped onion, chopped pancetta (though I used some leftover ham steak), chopped celery, and a paste of three garlic cloves and rosemary -- no sautéeing or anything -- and then 1/2 c. olive oil and 8 c. water.

You cook this for a couple of hours, then purrée half the soup, bring it to the boil again and add 8 oz. spaghetti or fettucini (had a package open) broken into 1-inch pieces and cook for another 20 minutes. You drizzle "your finest olive oil" over the soup when you serve it.

The dish was delicious, though I would make a couple of adjustments next time. I used too little water because I was afraid it would be too watery (and my package of beans may have been more than the 2 c. called for, I forgot to measure). The pancetta would probably add more flavor than my ham substitute. And I would try it without purréeing any next time. The beans themselves are prettier, even when cooked, than the mushy purrée and it would be soupier.

Other recent dishes have included two great standbys from Marcella Hazan -- the cauliflower with penne, where you break up the cooked cauliflower in oil and dress the pasta with that, along with red pepper and parsley (she uses anchovies as well but they are banned in our household); and the ever-good shell pasta with ricotta, bacon and peas.

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