Pasta Fagioli
Pasta Fagioli
This is an old school recipe amongst Italians - mainly from the centre to the southern regions - and there are many variations of this style. In some families, they add potatoes or cavolo nero, some use cannellini beans while others use borlotti. In my family, we traditionally ate it on Fridays and used borlotti beans and tomatoes - this recipe is inspired from a dear cugina, Zia Olimpia. Traditionally, this dish was made with dried beans but I have modified the recipe to use the tinned variety to take a shortcut.
The dish looks very humble but it’s a flavour bomb if you can invest the time to hang around the pot. The trick is to let the beans simmer until you see a lovely creamy consistency, it can take up to 2 hours. You could make this on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon, with a glass of wine in hand, reading the paper while you keep an eye on the pot. Be warned: if you cook it too long it can burn and leads to a family dispute about who took their eyes off the stove….memories.…
Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 tins of borlotti beans
2 garlic cloves
2 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
A pinch of dried oregano
A pinch of dried chilli flakes
500g of small pasta like little shells, lummachine, ditali
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Method
Drain the tinned beans and rinse under cold water
Put in a medium saucepan with 1.5 litres of cold water and bring to the boil
Add the garlic cloves, whole
Score the tomatoes with a cross and put into a bowl with boiling water for 10 minutes
Take the tomatoes out of the water and remove the skins
Cut the tomatoes into quarters and take out seeds. Chop into smaller pieces
Add the tomatoes to the simmering beans, along with the tomato paste, and gently simmer for approximately 1 hour. Check the texture of the beans; they should be nice and soft by now. If not, continue to simmer and taste for tenderness every 5 minutes
Once they are tender, add the salt to taste. It will vary depending on the beans, but it may take a few pinches to get it right to your liking
Remove half of the bean mix and puree with a food processor
Add the pureed beans back to the pot with the whole beans, add a pinch of oregano and chilli, and gently simmer for another 45-60 minutes. After this time, the mixture should be very creamy.
Boil the pasta to al dente, drain and then add to the bean mix with some saved pasta water to adjust the the consistency
Let it sit for 5 minutes for the flavours to meld
Put into bowls and serve this flavour explosion!