pasta & bean soup

i had some great soups while i was in pisa last week... in particular, i had an amazing ribollita and also a great farro & fagioli soup. as for the former, i couldn't find any cavolo nero (tuscan kale) in geneva, and i'm consequently awaiting a shipment from NC, who'll bring some for me from italy. (ribollita recipe coming soon... :-P)

as for the latter, i didn't have any farro on hand, and instead, i tried making a similar soup with pasta. the farro & fagioli soup i had in pisa was creamier than this one (since all the vegetables were puréed). however, i like keeping some integrity to the vegetables in my soup, and i refrained from puréeing it all. also, i probably added too much pasta; i always feel like too much pasta dilutes the quality of a good soup.

the point of this soup was to be simple, but delicious.. which it indeed turned out to be!

borlotti beans, dry or canned (if you can't find borlotti, i bet cannellini beans would work well)

small pasta (i used "mezze penne rigate")

olive oil

carrot, chopped

celery, chopped

onion, choppd

garlic, minceed

rosemary

thyme

salt & pepper

1. prepare the beans. i used dried beans and cooked them in the pressure cooker with salt, for about 30minutes. i cooked the beans until they were really tender. be sure to save the water that the beans were cooked in; we'll use this as the soup stock.

2. prepare the pasta; i decided to boil the pasta half-way before putting it into the soup, to prevent the soup from becoming too thick & starchy.. however, i think it'd turn out fine with the pasta cooked in the soup stock directly (in step 5).

3. in a stock pot, sautee the chopped onion, carrot, and celery with olive oil.. toss in the minced garlic, rosemary & thyme (to taste; i put about 1 tsp dried rosemary and just a dash of thyme). once everything is tender, add the beans, bean "stock", salt and pepper (to taste) to the sauteed vegetables.

4. then, take half of this soupy mixture and puree it in your food processor, adding water if needed.. then put it back into your stock pot. (or if you have an immersion blender, just blend it directly in the soup pot). let it simmer for a while, until your soup attains the desired consistency and flavor.

5. now (if you haven't already added pasta), add the half-way cooked pasta now. let it simmer until the pasta is done!