When Sam and I (Kate) lived in St. Petersburg during the summer and fall of 1999, there weren’t a lot of grocery options other than Russian staples. I loved the Russian food, but I also sometimes wanted a change. I figured out how to make a version of this recipe, originally published in Gourmet Magazine long ago, from imported items at a European store, and made it at least monthly the entire seven months we lived there. In fact, I tried to have it published in the St. Petersburg Times, in case other ex-pats needed easy fixes for their own moments of culinary homesickness.
The Times rejected me, but at home even friends who’ve lived in Italy enjoy this recipe, so we’ve continued to serve it for company as well as our family. I started to prepare it this afternoon just as Amelia was beginning a Zoom interview for a college she’d love to attend. I had some butterflies in my stomach on her behalf, hoping she’d learn from the interview experience and feel that her preparation time had been well-spent. As I chopped the onion and smashed the garlic, the old calm came to me that preparing this soup had afforded twenty years ago. Here’s hoping it will offer you the same.
Pasta e Fagoli
Serves 4 as a main course
2 to 4 slices of bacon
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small rib of celery, chopped fine
1 carrot, quartered and sliced thin
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt (or less if you use a full-salt store-made broth—we like Swansons)
2 15.5-ounce cans small white beans, rinsed well and drained
1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2/3 cup tubetti or other small tubular pasta
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to sprinkle on top, recommended
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves, optional
In a heavy saucepan cook the bacon over moderate heat, flipping it over halfway through, until it is crisp. Remove the bacon and pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat, and in the remaining fat cook the onion for 4 or 5 minutes, stirring, until it is softened. Add the garlic, celery, and carrot, then saute and stir for another minute. Next add the broth and salt and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Turn down the heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir the beans into the soup with the remaining whole beans and the tomatoes then simmer, covered again, for another 5 minutes. Smashing some of the beans thickens the soup in a nice way, if you’d like to do so.
[This is one of those soups whose flavor improves with time. So when we are able, we make it ahead to this point either the night before or the morning of, then keep it chilled until twenty minutes before we want to serve dinner. If it’s 37 degrees or colder outside, we just cover the pot and set it outside, but that isn’t safe if it’s any warmer out there than 38 degrees.]
This is a thick soup, so if you’d like it thinner, add a cup or more of water at this point, then bring the soup to a simmer and stir in the tubetti. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Add some freshly ground pepper and taste to learn whether you’d like to add more salt. Crumble the bacon, wash, dry, and chop the parsley, and get out the Parmigiano-Reggiano and a grater. Let the soup stand off the heat, covered, for 5 minutes, then stir in the parsley and bacon and serve the soup in bowls sprinkled with the cheese.
