Pasta and beans (pasta e fagioli)
Pasta and beans (pasta e fagioli) is a classic Italian dish, a first course with an unmistakable flavor that’s deeply rooted in rural tradition. While more rustic versions, like our Neapolitan pasta and beans recipe, involve flavoring the dish with pork rind, other variants combine legumes with mollusks to give the dish an intense flavor of the sea. A simple, inexpensive, tasty and authentic dish.
Ingredients (4 servings)
Ditaloni rigati pasta ¾ lb (320 g)
Dried Borlotti beans ½ lb (200 g) (any kind)
Tomato puree 1 cup (250 g)
Prosciutto crudo 3 oz (80 g) (option)
Onions ½ cup (30 g)
Celery 1 (30 g)
Carrots 1 (30 g)
Garlic 1 clove
Rosemary 3 sprigs
Bay leaves 2
Extra virgin olive oil ¾ tbsp (10 g)
Black pepper to taste
Fine salt to taste
Preparation
To prepare the pasta and beans, first leave the dried beans to soak overnight.
The next day, rinse them, transfer them to a saucepan, cover with plenty of cold water, add 2 bay leaves, and boil them untill tender.
Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients for the recipe. Start by peeling and finely chopping the onion, celery, and carrot, and then cut the prosciutto into strips.
Heat the oil in a pot, (medium heat) add a peeled clove of garlic and the chopped vegetables and cook for around 5 minutes. Then add in the strips of prosciutto and cook for a couple more minutes. Remove the beans from the water using a slotted spoon and add them to the vegetable mixture.
Next, add a ladleful of the bean cooking water to the mixture, setting the rest of the cooking water aside to use later. Now add the tomato purée to the pot, season with salt moderately, add pepper, and cook for 20 minutes over medium heat, after which time you can add the pasta. Before adding the pasta, take two ladleful from the mixture and pour them into a container. Blend using an immersion blender and set the resulting cream aside.
Add the pasta directly to the pot, cover with the cooking water from the beans, and allow the pasta to cook, stirring from time to time, still over medium heat. Once the pasta is cooked al dente, add the previously blended mixture and the chopped rosemary, then turn off the heat, put the lid on, and leave to rest for 3 minutes. A final sprinkling of black pepper and your pasta and beans dish is ready to be served!
Tips
Finish off your pasta and beans with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of chili pepper for an even more delicious and authentic dish! If you prefer, you could replace the borlotti beans with cannellini beans (white beans) for a more subtle flavor, or play around with different types of pasta, combining any leftovers you have in the cupboard, for example!
I love combining mixed pasta from the cupboard.
