Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

by Marcella Hazan

  4. If using fresh beans: Shell them, rinse them in cold water, and put them in the soup pot. Stir 2 or 3 times to coat them well, then add the broth. Cover the pot, adjust the heat so that the broth bubbles at a steady, but gentle boil, and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the beans are fully tender.

  If using cooked dried beans or the canned: Extend the cooking time for the tomatoes in Step 3 to 20 minutes. Add the drained cooked or canned beans, stirring them thoroughly to coat them well. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the broth, cover the pot, and bring the broth to a gentle boil.

  5. Scoop up about ½ cup of the beans and mash them through a food mill back into the pot. Add salt, a few grindings of black pepper, and stir thoroughly.

  6. Check the soup for density: It should be liquid enough to cook the pasta in. If necessary, add more broth or, if you are using diluted canned broth, more water. When the soup has come to a steady, moderate boil, add the pasta. If you are using homemade pasta, taste for doneness after 1 minute. If you are using macaroni pasta, it will take several minutes longer, but stop the cooking when the pasta is tender, but still firm to the bite. Before turning off the heat, swirl in 1 tablespoon of butter and the grated cheese.

  7. Pour the soup into a large serving bowl or into individual plates, and allow to settle for 10 minutes before serving. It tastes best when eaten warm, rather than piping hot.

  Variation with Rice

  The same soup is delicious with rice. Substitute 1 cup of rice, preferably Italian Arborio rice, for the pasta. Follow all other steps as given above.

  Ahead-of-time note You can prepare the soup almost entirely in advance but stop at the end of Step 5. Add and cook the pasta or rice only when you are going to make the soup ready for serving.

  Acquacotta—Tuscan Peasant Soup with Cabbage and Beans

  WHEN YOU ARE HAVING a dish whose main ingredients are stale bread, water, onion, tomato, and olive oil, you are nourishing yourself as the once indigent Tuscan peasants did, when they could take sustenance only from those things that cost them nothing. If in the same dish, however, you find eggs, Parmesan cheese, and the aroma of lemons, then you know you have moved out of the farmyard and into the squire’s great house. For a traditional Tuscan country dinner, this soup would precede other courses, but it is substantial enough to contemplate using it as the principal course of a simpler meal.

  The great house this particular recipe comes from is Villa Cappezzana, whose mistress, Countess Lisa Contini Bonacossi, is not only one of the most gifted of Tuscan cooks, but fortunately, one of the most hospitable. Equally fortunate for the guests that are always turning up at Cappezzana, among the red wines her husband Ugo and son Vittorio make are two that in Tuscany stand out for their refinement, Carmignano and Ghiaie della Furba.

  For 6 servings

  4 cups onion sliced rather thick, about ⅓ inch

  Salt

  ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

  3 cups celery chopped fine, the leaves included

  3 cups Savoy cabbage shredded very fine

  2 cups kale leaves, chopped very fine

  1 cup fresh, ripe, firm tomato, skinned raw with a peeler, seeds removed, and cut into ¼-inch dice

  8 fresh basil leaves, torn into 2 or 3 pieces

  1 bouillon cube

  ⅓ cup dried cannellini beans, soaked and cooked and drained

  Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

  An oven-to-table ceramic casserole with a lid

  12 thin toasted slices day-old Tuscan-style or other good country bread OR Olive Oil Bread

  ⅓ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

  ⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

  6 eggs

  1. Choose a saucepan that can subsequently contain all the vegetables and beans and enough water to cover by 2 inches. Put in the onion, some salt, ¼ cup olive oil, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the onion, turning it over occasionally, until it wilts. Add the chopped celery, turning it over to coat it well, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the Savoy cabbage, turn it over well, cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the chopped kale leaves, turning them over and cooking them briefly as just described. Add the diced tomato and the basil, turning them over once or twice, then add the bouillon cube with enough water to cover by about 2 inches. Cover tightly and cook for at least 2 and possibly 3 hours, replenishing the water when necessary to maintain its original level.

  2. Preheat oven to 400°.

  3. Put the drained, cooked beans and several grindings of pepper in the pot with the vegetables, stir, taste, and correct for salt and pepper.

  4. Line the bottom of the ceramic casserole with the sliced bread. Pour over it the remaining ¼ cup olive oil, then the vegetable broth from the pot, then all the vegetables and beans in the pot. Sprinkle over it half the grated Parmesan.

  5. Put the lemon juice in a small skillet together with 1½ inches or more of water, and turn the heat on to medium. When the liquid comes to a simmer, adjust the heat to maintain it thus without letting it come to a fast boil. Break 1 egg into a saucer and slide it into the pan. Spoon a little of the simmering liquid over the egg as it cooks. When, in about 3 minutes, the egg white becomes set and turns a dull, flat color, but the yolk is still runny, retrieve the egg with a slotted spoon and slide it over the vegetables in the casserole. Repeat the procedure with the other 5 eggs, placing the eggs side by side.

  6. Sprinkle salt and the remaining Parmesan cheese over the eggs. Cover the casserole and place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. After taking the dish out of the oven, uncover and let the contents settle for several minutes before serving. When serving, make sure each guest gets some of the bread from the bottom of the dish and an egg.

  Ahead-of-time note You may complete the soup up to this point several hours or even a day in advance. When keeping it overnight, if you have a cold place to store it, it would be preferable to use it instead of the refrigerator, which tends to give cooked greens a somewhat sour taste. Reheat completely before proceeding with the next step.

  La Jota—Beans and Sauerkraut Soup

  FOR MOST of the twentieth century, the city of Trieste has clung passionately to its Italian identity, but its cooking, such as this stout bean soup with potatoes, sauerkraut, and pork, often speaks with the earthy accent of its Slavic origins.

  An ingredient that contributes much to the delightful consistency of the soup is fresh, unsmoked pork rind, preferably coming from the jowl. It is, unfortunately, rather difficult to obtain except from specialized pork butchers. If you can persuade your butcher to get some for you and you have to buy more than you need for this recipe, you can freeze the rest and use it on another occasion. If no rind of any kind is available to you, use fresh pig’s feet, which are easier to find, or the fresh end of the shoulder known as pork hock.

  When completed, jota is enriched with a final flavoring called pestà: salt pork so finely chopped that it is nearly reduced to a paste, hence the name. Although the components here are different, the procedure recalls the practice of adding flavored oils to some Tuscan bean soups.

  For 8 servings

  FOR THE SOUP

  2 pounds fresh cranberry beans, unshelled weight, OR 1 cup dried cranberry beans or red kidney beans, soaked and cooked

  ¼ pound bacon

  1 pound sauerkraut, drained

  ½ teaspoon cumin

  1 medium potato

  ¾ pound fresh pork jowl, OR pig’s feet, OR pork hock, see remarks above

  Salt

  3 tablespoons coarse cornmeal

  FOR THE PESTÀ, THE SAVORY FINISH

  ¼ cup salt pork chopped fine to a pulp either with a knife or in the food processor

  1 tablespoon onion chopped very fine

  1 teaspoon garlic chopped very fine

  Salt

  1 tablespoon flour

  1. If using fresh beans: Shell, rinse, and cook them in water. Set aside in their cooking liquid.

  If using cook
ed dried beans: Reserve for later, together with their liquid, and begin with Step 2.

  2. Cut the bacon into 1-inch strips, put it in a saucepan, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the drained sauerkraut and the cumin, stir thoroughly to coat well with bacon fat, and cook for 2 minutes.

  3. Add 1 cup water, cover the pan, turn the heat down to very low, and cook for 1 hour. At that time the sauerkraut should be substantially reduced in bulk and there should be no liquid in the pan. If some liquid is still left, uncover the pan, turn up the heat to medium, and boil it away.

  4. Peel the potato, cut it up into small chunks, rinse in cold water and drain.

  5. If using fresh pork jowl or other fresh pork rind: While the sauerkraut is slowly stewing and/or the fresh beans are cooking, put the pork rind in a soup pot with 1 quart of water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, drain, discarding the cooking liquid, and cut the rind into ¾- to 1-inch-wide strips. Do not be alarmed if it is tough. It will soften to a creamy consistency in subsequent cooking.

  Return the rind to the soup pot, add the cut-up potato, 3 cups of water, and a large pinch of salt. Cover the pot and adjust heat so that the water bubbles at a slow, but steady boil for 1 hour.

  If using fresh pig’s feet or pork hock: Put the pork, potato, and salt in a soup pot with enough water to cover by 2 inches, put a lid on the pot, and adjust heat so that the water bubbles at a slow, but steady boil for 1 hour.

  Take the pork out of the pot, bone it, cut it into ½-inch strips, and put it back into the pot.

  6. Add the cooked fresh or dried beans with all their liquid, cover, adjust heat so that the liquid bubbles at a steady, but slow simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.

  7. Add the sauerkraut, cover the pot again, and continue to cook, always at a steady simmer, for 1 more hour.

  8. Add the cornmeal in a thin stream, stirring it thoroughly into the soup. Add 2 cups water, cover, and cook for 45 minutes more, always at a slow, steady simmer. Stir from time to time.

  9. When the soup is nearly done, prepare the pestà: Put the chopped salt pork and onion in a skillet or small saucepan, and turn on the heat to medium. Sauté the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold. Add the chopped garlic and sauté it until it becomes colored a very pale gold. Add a large pinch of salt and pour in the flour, one teaspoon at a time, stirring it thoroughly until it becomes colored a rich gold.

  10. Add the pestà to the soup, stirring it in thoroughly, and simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Allow the soup to settle for a few minutes before serving.

  Note If unfamiliar with cranberry beans, see the recipe for Pasta e fagioli Soup.

  Ahead-of-time note Although La Jota requires hours of slow cooking, these can be staggered and scheduled at your convenience because the soup should be served a day or two after it has been made to give its flavors time to develop fully and merge. You can interrupt its preparation whenever you have completed one of its major steps. Allow the soup to cool, refrigerate it, and on the following day resume cooking where you left off. Prepare and add the pestà, however, only when ready to serve.

  Novara’s Bean and Vegetable Soup

  THIS MONUMENTALLY dense minestrone from Piedmont, the northwestern region of Italy at the foot of the Alps, has at least two lives. It is a deeply satisfying vegetable soup, and it is also the base for one of the most robust of risotti: La paniscia.

  If you are making the recipe to use it in la paniscia, there will be some soup left over, because only part of it will go into the risotto. But the leftover soup can be refrigerated, and, a few days later, when its flavor will be even richer, you can expand it with pasta and broth for yet a different version.

  For 4 to 6 servings

  ¼ pound pork rind OR fresh side pork (pork belly)

  ⅓ cup vegetable oil

  1 tablespoon butter

  2 medium onions, sliced very thin, about 1 cup

  1 carrot, peeled, washed, and diced

  1 large stalk of celery, washed and diced

  2 medium zucchini, washed, then trimmed of both ends and diced

  1 cup shredded red cabbage

  1 pound fresh cranberry beans, unshelled weight, OR 1 cup dried cranberry or red kidney beans, soaked and drained but not cooked

  ⅓ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice

  Salt

  Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

  3 cups Basic Homemade Meat Broth, OR 1 cup canned beef broth diluted with 2 cups water

  Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table

  1. Cut the pork into strips about ½ inch long and ¼ inch wide.

  2. Put the oil, butter, onion, and pork into a soup pot, and turn on the heat to medium. Stir from time to time.

  3. When the onion becomes colored a deep gold, add all the diced vegetables, the shredded cabbage, and the shelled fresh beans or the drained, soaked dried beans. Stir well for about a minute to coat all ingredients thoroughly.

  4. Add the cut-up tomatoes with their juice, a pinch of salt, and several grindings of pepper. Stir thoroughly once again, then put in all the broth. If there should not be enough to cover all the ingredients by at least 1 inch, make up the difference with water.

  5. Cover the pot, turn the heat down to low, adjusting it so the soup cooks at a very slow simmer. Cook for at least 2 hours. Expect the consistency, when done, to be rather thick. Taste and correct for salt and pepper.

  If you have made it to serve as a soup and not as a component of la paniscia, ladle it into individual plates or bowls, let it settle a few minutes, and bring to the table along with freshly grated Parmesan.

  Bean and Red Cabbage Soup

  AS MUCH as a cabbage soup, this is a full-bodied pork and beans dish, part of that corpulent Mediterranean family of bean and meat dishes of which cassoulet is also a member. You should not hesitate to take some freedom with the basic recipe, varying its proportions of sausage, beans, and cabbage to suit your taste. The recipe as it is given here will produce a robust course in which soup, meat, and vegetable are combined and can become a meal in itself. Increasing the amount of sausage will make it even heartier. On the other hand, you can eliminate the sausage altogether, substituting it with a piece of fresh pork on the bone, and augment the quantity of broth to turn it into a soupier dish that can serve as the first course of a substantial country menu.

  For 6 servings

  ¾ pound pork rind OR fresh pig’s feet OR pork hock

  ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

  ½ teaspoon chopped garlic

  2 tablespoons chopped onion

  2 tablespoons pancetta shredded very fine

  1 pound shredded red cabbage, about 4 cups

  ⅓ cup chopped celery

  3 tablespoons canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, drained

  A pinch of thyme

  3 cups (or more) Basic Homemade Meat Broth, OR 1 cup canned beef broth diluted with 2 cups water

  Salt

  Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

  ½ pound mild fresh pork sausage that does not contain fennel seeds or other herbs

  1 cup dried cannellini OR other white kidney beans, soaked and cooked, OR 3 cups canned cannellini beans, drained

  OPTIONAL: thick slices of grilled or toasted crusty bread

  FOR THE FINISHING TOUCH OF FLAVORED OIL

  2 to 3 garlic cloves, lightly mashed with a knife handle and peeled

  3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

  ½ teaspoon chopped dried rosemary leaves OR a small sprig of fresh rosemary

  1. If you are using pork rind: Put the rind in a small saucepan, add enough cold water to cover by about 1 inch, and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute, then drain and, when cool enough to handle, cut the rind into strips about ½ inch wide and 2 to 3 inches long.

  If you are using fresh pig’s feet or hock: Put the feet or hock in a saucepan with enough water to cover by about 2 inches, put a lid on the pot, and
cook at a moderate boil for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  Remove the pork from the pot, bone it, cut it into strips approximately ½ inch wide and set aside.

  2. Put the olive oil in a soup pot together with the chopped onion and pancetta, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the onion, stirring, until it becomes translucent, then add the garlic, and cook it, stirring from time to time, until it becomes lightly colored.

  3. Add the shredded cabbage, chopped celery, pork rind or feet or hock, the drained tomato, and a pinch of thyme. Cook over medium-low heat until the cabbage has completely wilted. Stir thoroughly from time to time.

  4. Add the broth, salt, and several grindings of pepper, cover the pot, and turn the heat down to very low. Cook for about 2½ hours. This phase may be spread over 2 days, stopping the cooking and refrigerating the soup whenever you need to. The soup develops even deeper flavor when reheated and cooked in this manner.

  5. Uncover the pot and, off heat, tilting it slightly, draw off as much of the fat as possible floating on the surface. If the soup is refrigerated after completing Step 4, the fat will be even easier to remove because it will have formed a thin, but firm layer on top. Return the pot to the burner, and bring its contents to a slow simmer.

  6. Pierce the sausages at two or three points with a toothpick or sharp fork, put them in a small skillet, and turn on the heat to medium low. Brown them well on all sides, using just the fat they themselves shed. Add just the browned sausages, but none of the fat in the skillet, to the pot.

  7. Purée half the drained cooked or canned beans into the pot, stirring thoroughly. Cover and continue to simmer for 15 minutes.

  8. Add the remaining whole beans and correct the density of the soup, if desired, by adding a little more homemade broth or water. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes more. If you are making the dish ahead of time and stopping at this point, bring the soup to a simmer for a few minutes before proceeding with the next and final steps.