Tuscan White Bean Soup

[bleudauvergne]

Adam, can anyone build a case for simmering the beans in stock, or is it better to use the stock to finish the soup?

[Adam Balic]

Adam, can anyone build a case for simmering the beans in stock, or is it better to use the stock to finish the soup?

←

Better cooks then me might be able to do this estimate he final flavour of stock added at the begining, but I find this difficult unless I make the stock specifically for the stock. Also, for bean soup the only stock I have made is veg. stiock made with some prosciutto fat and rind, but I can't see why a fish stock wouldn't work (I think that this would be good with chickpeas).

Edited March 14, 2006 by Adam Balic (log)

[Jim Dixon]

More than ever, I'm convinced it's the beans.

For the past couple of years I've been eating beans grown by Anthony & Carol Boutard at Ayers Creek Farm (no website, but here's an article about them) and by a group of farmers in eastern Washington & Oregon called Shepherd's Grain.

It may be hard to believe if you've only had canned beans or the frequently ancient dried beans sold at most markets (even in Italy...I once bought a pound of dried beans that looked good but never got tender, a sure sign of age), but the difference is about the same as drinking canned Folgers versus freshly roasted and ground coffee.

I always cook the beans separately (in the same pot I talked about above with just water, olive oil, and salt), and they're so good I eat a lot of them plain. If you want good bean soup, you have to start with good beans (ditto for garbanzos...Shepherd's Grain offers killer garbanzos).

Jim

ps..edited to add that you can good beans by mail from Rancho Gordo

Edited March 14, 2006 by Jim Dixon (log)

[Austin]

Like somebody else said, there are obviously lots of variations, but to me, rosemary doesn't seem "right". I would try this recipe that uses sage. It's very good.

Austin

[Abra]

Rancho Gordo, linked to by Jim above, has fabulous beans. I put them in the crockpot on low overnight, and by lunchtime they're succulent and perfect. I often do cook them in homemade chicken broth, although they have so much flavor that water works well too. When cooked, I make soup with part, and eat the rest just as they are. They're in another universe from canned beans, honest.

[mukki]

This probably doesn't count as authentic Tuscan white bean soup, but Marcella Hazan's cannellini bean soup is outstanding (in my opinion, anyway) and very easy to make. It's just olive oil, garlic, canned beans, s/p, stock and parsley. I always add more garlic than the recipe calls for. It's in her Essentials cookbook and can also be found on the web.

[bleudauvergne]

I'm kicking myself for not serving the hybrid thread version of Tuscan White Bean soup last night to guests. I had it in my plan and then changed my mind. Why? I just don't know. Today I went ahead and served it for lunch. The beans I used were French white haricots de Soissons (purchased dry, soaked, and slow cooked) leftover from a weekend lamb dinner. For the soup, the beans were simmered with a bouquet of sage and laurel (European bay), with garlic just enough time to infuse the oils from the sage and soften the garlic. I removed the bouquet, pureed the soup, and enriched with leftover veal demi-glace. Seasoned and brightened with lemon juice. Instead of ham, a slice of leftover leg of lamb was cut into strips and crisped in hot duck fat to add to the top of the soup. What a combination! To fill out the bowl, sauteed cubed courgettes and minced onions were placed at the bottom of the bowl under the soup. Drizzled with olive oil. This was 5 times better than I imagined it would be last night when I replaced the soup course with an herb tarte. What was I thinking? It would have been the wow factor of the meal.

[racheld]

Wow, indeed. Beans going in to soak THIS MINUTE.

[Rebecca263]

I use smopked turkey in my white bean soup, and sage. It is SO delicious, and the bones from the turkey add a beautiful thickness which I've noted is absent if I make the bean soup vegan.

edited by me to add: smopked! hahaha!

AND: I've used tofu skin in a vegan soup, it isn't terrible, but it needs soo much more seasoning!

Edited March 15, 2006 by Rebecca263 (log)

[bleudauvergne]

A photo cannot do this soup justice but here it is nonetheless.

[Chufi]

Glorious soup! I love white beansoup...

For the soup, the beans were simmered with a bouquet of sage and laurel (European bay),

←

Do you mean that European bay is different from... what? American? I never knew...

[Briarhill]

Like somebody else said, there are obviously lots of variations, but to me, rosemary doesn't seem "right".  I would try this recipe that uses sage.  It's very good.

Austin

←

Hey, Austin:

I didn't see any sage in that recipe. There appears to be a boatload of sausage, however!

[azureus]

For the soup, the beans were simmered with a bouquet of sage and laurel (European bay),

←

Do you mean that European bay is different from... what? American? I never knew...

←

The leaves of the California Bay Laurel are also sold as "bay leaves", though the flavor is slightly different from European Bay.

I like to add roasted red pepper strips to bean soups. They add a tangy sweetness. I think of beans as the plain, starchy base of the soup. Potato or barley soup would be bland without other ingredients as well. The excitment comes from what you add!

April

[Pontormo]

A little self-serving, but see this link to thread in Italian forum where members include recipes, links to photos or good references. I am a big fan of ribollita which is mentioned several times and plan to make Kevin's highly endorsed jota soon if the new wave of cold weather lingers. (See the link to Friuli below his signature line for more hearty soups made this month.)

Regarding the original post in THIS thread, of course the quality of ingredients, as many responses suggest, makes a difference. However, sometimes the subtleties of very simple dishes give more pleasure to some than to others. With Marcella Hazan's great recipe, making a very thick soup with LOTS of garlic, an olive oil with pronounced taste and dark green flat-leaf parsley are all important. I recommend pureeing only one half of the recipe. Water is fine instead of stock.

Regarding salt, if you're new to using dried legumes you might not know that you have to let the beans get to a point at which they're almost fully cooked before adding it. At least, kitchen wives's tales report that the bean toughens otherwise; I haven't checked McGee or Wolke to see if that's true. I do know from experience that tomatoes added too soon will prolong cooking time.

Finally, I have found that adding a strip of dried seaweed, parsley, a small onion & a couple of bay leaves to beans that are going to end up in a pot of soup is worthwhile. Yes, sigh, once again credit is due to Deborah Madison for the idea.

Of course, ham is good in just about everything. Lucy, yes, that bowl of soup is something I could go for right about now.

[Austin]

Like somebody else said, there are obviously lots of variations, but to me, rosemary doesn't seem "right".  I would try this recipe that uses sage.  It's very good.

Austin

←

Hey, Austin:

I didn't see any sage in that recipe. There appears to be a boatload of sausage, however!

←

Briarhill: The first steop of the instructions say that you "Cook beans according to recipe for Fagioli Lessi." The recipe for Fagioli Lessi (click on "Related Recipes", sorry that wasn't 100% clear) involves cooking the beans in water with fresh sage, peppercorns, and a bit of olive oil. So the recipe I linked to is essentialy the "second" steop. Very basic, but very good.

Austin

[Abra]

Lucy, that lamb garnish is a stroke of genius, one I'm going to emulate at the earliest opportunity. Did you use lamb stock for the liquid, or just the bean water?

[bleudauvergne]

Lucy, that lamb garnish is a stroke of genius, one I'm going to emulate at the earliest opportunity.  Did you use lamb stock for the liquid, or just the bean water?

←

Abra, You mentioned cooking the beans in broth, which is what I did this weekend when I initially cooked the beans. (I used a broth made from pintade necks from my poultry lady.) However, when I served the beans at dinner with the leg of lamb over the weekend, I did not taste at all any flavor coming from the broth. I think Adam is correct in his instruction to use a demi-glace or reduced stock to flavor the soup at the end. For the soup, I topped the beans, garlic and sage and bay bouquet with water, plain water just to cover everything, then in about 15 minutes I pureed them and used a seperate demi-glace at the end for flavor, following Adam's advice. I think what counts is bean flavor, so if you used your bean cooking liquid it couldn't hurt.

What made the lamb garnish good was the distinct contrast (flavor and texture) and also the familiar classic combination that lamb and white beans have - I would hold back on using lamb broth for the soup because it would reduce the contrast of the soup with the meat and reduce the effect of that suprise.

Do you mean that European bay is different from... what? American? I never knew...

Hi Chufi, American bay leaves can pack a very strong flavor and have to be used carefully. I keep a whole branch of bay here in my kitchen and break off the leaves and use them pretty liberally in cooking here, but in the States I'll cut down the size of a single bay leaf to use less than one for the same level of flavor coming from it. You can tell the difference by rubbing and smelling the leaf.

[Torrilin]

Hrm, my usual version is:

1 lb dried beans, soaked overnight

~1 tbsp kosher salt

1-2 tsp cayenne or chilli powder (I'm extravagant with it because the stuff I have is *very* mild, use less if yours is very spicy)

2 tsp ground sage (again, extravagant because I don't have fresh sage)

~1/4 c olive oil

6-8 smashed cloves of garlic

cooking liquid is either a blank chicken stock (prepared with no seasoning and kept frozen) or plain water

Put ingredients into an oven safe dish, heat oven to 200-250 F, cook until beans are tender. Start off with the beans just covered by your liquid of choice, and check frequently to make sure the pot hasn't gone dry. If the liquid level gets too low, add some more. Will be done in 4-12 hours, depending on how fresh your beans are.

The stock tends to produce a thicker bean soup due to the natural gelatin, the water produces a thinner one. I find a puree works better when at least some stock was used. You *will* need to add additional liquid to turn it into bean soup, but a pound of cooked beans will produce enough soup to serve as a meal for a *lot* of people. I'd start with about 16 servings as an estimate. It's perhaps wiser to make the beans up, and use perhaps 1/4 for soup, and do other things with the remainder. I like the beans smashed onto bread as a spread , or dressed with a bit of vinegar.

Emily

[BarbaraY]

I was inspired to make Sopa Toscana by reading this thread and the fact that I have a bag of Cannellini Beans in the pantry. Found a huge number of sites with recipes but none of them suited me so I created my own version.

The beans are about 3 years old and, after reading upthread that old beans were impossible to soften, I was concerned that the beans wouldn't cook properly. I gave them a 1 minute boil and 2 hours soak, simmered them gently and they turned out just right.

1/2 lb. Canellini Beans

1 bay leaf

1 onion, minced

2 stalks celery chopped

2 fat cloves garlic minced

Extra Virgen Olive oil

2 Italian sausages browned, split lengthwise and cut into half moons

Tomato paste, about 3 tablespoons (I just squeezed enough out of the tube to get the taste I liked.)

Kosher salt to taste.

Several grinds black pepper

About 2 tablespoons minced fresh sage

1/2 bunch kale, torn into bite sized pieces

1/3 cup Ditalini

Splash of Balsamic

Cooked beans until about half done; softened onions, celery, and garlic in olive oil and added to soup along with sausage to cook until tender. Then added seasonings and tomato paste, followed by sage, kale and Ditalini. Finished with a few drops of Balsamic Vinegar.

We had it for dinner topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and Italian parsley. Sourdough roll was all we needed with it.

Authentic? I don't know but it sure was good on a cloudy day.

That may look like a lot of sage for 3 quarts of soup but it was baby new leaves and very mild. I would use less if they were mature leaves. I love white beans and sage together.

Edited March 17, 2006 by BarbaraY (log)

[Lori in PA]

You've given some lovely bean soup ideas here, everyone. I decided to chime in to balance that picture. I had to be gone all day yesterday, knew the whole family would be eating late, and wanted an instant dinner. I had about 3 servings of pureed white bean soup with venison sausage languishing in the freezer. I thawed that in the microwave and dumped it into the crockpot with 2 cans of canellini beans (drained, 1 big and 1 little can), one chopped yellow onion (not even sauteed first), a heaping spoon of bottled, minced garlic, 1 qt. of Swanson's Natural Goodness "boxed" chicken broth, some dried sage and grinds of black pepper. I cut up a package of "lite" kielbasa and threw that in, too. The crockpot did its thing all day on low, since everything but the onion was already cooked.

It was good. Not ethereal, but satisfying and provender for the hungry hoard. Dinner should always be so easy -- yay for beans, even canned!

[bleudauvergne]

Very nice looking soup, Barbara. Kale's a great idea. What's Ditalini?

[BarbaraY]

Very nice looking soup, Barbara.    Kale's a great idea.  What's Ditalini?

←

They are a short tubular pasta. Italian for little thimbles. In America, the most popular use is in macaroni salads.