TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
Pasta e FagioliPasta and Bean Soup
A soup of pasta and beans, a popular Neapolitan dish rich in flavor drawn from humble ingredients. A classic example of cucina povera, the cooking of the poor.
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Ingredients (4 servings)
- Cooked borlotti beans400 g
- Short pasta (ditalini)160 g
- Lardo or pancettaFinely chopped.60 g
- GarlicFinely chopped.2 cloves
- Extra virgin olive oil45 ml
- Cherry tomatoes150 g
- Rosemary1 sprig
Method
Render the lardo
- 1 Finely chop the lardo (or pancetta) and sauté with the finely chopped garlic in a saucepan with 30 ml olive oil over medium heat.
Ready when
Continue when the fat has rendered and the lardo turns translucent (about 5 minutes).
Break down the tomatoes into a sauce
- 1 Add the cherry tomatoes and rosemary and sauté for 5 minutes, crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
Ready when
Continue when the tomatoes have broken down into a sauce.
Mash the beans and simmer the soup
- 1 Add half the beans and mash them to create a soup base.
- 2 Add the remaining beans and 500 ml water, cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
Add the pasta and finish
- 1 Add the pasta and cook al dente (about 8–12 minutes, depending on the pasta).
- 2 Season with salt and drizzle 15 ml finishing olive oil over the whole pot.
About this dish
Pasta and beans: as simple as its name, this dish symbolizes cucina povera, the cooking of the poor born in rural southern Italy. Beans supplied valuable protein and pasta provided energy to fill the stomach. Combining them produced an inexpensive, balanced meal, born from the practical wisdom of farmers.
The Neapolitan version is often soupier than those of other regions and is sometimes described as liquid pasta. Lardo or guanciale adds flavor, tomatoes are included, and some of the beans are mashed to thicken it. Those mashed beans give the soup its distinctive texture.
“Né troppo brodoso né troppo asciutto”—neither too soupy nor too dry—is the Neapolitan expression for its ideal consistency.
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