Don't Sweat the Aubergine
carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and leeks, and be served on toasted bread rubbed with garlic. The soup I describe above is much humbler; but, with a little trepidation, I would say that it has the advantage over many more authentic recipes of not containing vegetables that have been boiled for hours on end. If you want carrots in the soup, don’t simmer them for longer than they take to cook (remove them from the simmering liquid if you need to). Stew tomatoes with a little olive oil, and add them in the final, warming-through phase. Add chopped leeks with the cabbage; or sauté them, adding them when the onion, celery and garlic have been in the oil for 10 to 15 minutes.
This could be a meaty soup . Simmer a ham hock or piece of gammon with the beans, removing it when the meat is tender. Then cut up the meat and add it to the soup at the end, to warm through. Or use a piece of bacon or pancetta: simmer the rind with the beans, for flavour and for the gelatine it imparts to the liquid; cube the meat, and brown it in oil, adding the onion, celery and garlic to the same pan to soften. A simpler version: cook the beans in the usual way, puréeing half, all or none of them as you see fit; then fry lardons and garlic, add them to the soup, and warm through.
Simpler still : cook the beans as above, with an onion and two unpeeled garlic cloves; discard the onion and the skins of the garlic, liquidize the beans and garlic pulp with enough liquid to make a creamy soup; warm through, check the seasoning, and serve with extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on the soup at the table.
If you’re using tinned beans : they don’t need cooking, of course, so they get treated as would any other cooked vegetable in a soup – added at the end, and warmed through. One possibility: simmer a ham hock or piece of gammon with a clove-studded onion. When the meat is tender, throw away the onion. Soften onion, celery and garlic, as in the bean soup above. Liquidize these vegetables with two 400g tins of beans, drained, and enough ham cooking liquor to make a thick soup. Put in a pan, warm through, and cook savoy cabbage in the soup as above. Add cut-up ham or bacon, warm through, check seasoning, and serve. If you prefer: don’t blend the soup, or blend only half the beans to thicken the liquid a little.
PASTA AND CHICKPEAS
As I’ve described lentil and bean soups, I feel that it would be odd to leave out a version of this Italian classic.
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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For 4
200g chickpeas
1 onion, peeled
2 whole, unpeeled garlic cloves
2 dried chillies (optional)
2 sprigs of rosemary (optional)
Ham hock or 150g chunk of pancetta (optional)
Tomatoes from a 400g tin, drained of their juice
150g ditalini, or other small pasta shape
Soak the chickpeas overnight, drain them and cook them in fresh water ( see here ) with the onion, garlic, and dried chillies. The rosemary shouldn’t really be optional; but as you have to find a muslin bag or some other arrangement for tying it up (so that the sprigs don’t invade the soup and get in your way when you’re eating), let’s say that it is. Add the rosemary and the ham hock, or the rind from the pancetta.
Remove the ham when it is tender; the chickpeas may take some time longer to cook. If you’ve used pancetta, cube it, and cook it separately in a little olive oil, frying it gently until it starts to get brown and crispy.
When the chickpeas are ready, they should be sitting in enough water to contain and cook the pasta as well; keep checking on the water level as the chickpeas simmer, topping it up if necessary with hot water from the kettle. Throw away the onion and chillies; lift out the garlic, remove the pulp from the skins, and return it to the soup. Chop up the drained tomatoes, and add them to the pot; when the soup is simmering again, throw in the pasta, and turn up the heat to cook it; stop when it still has plenty of bite, because it will carry on cooking in the liquid. Stir in the fried cubes of pancetta, if using, or the ham, shredded from the bone; check the seasoning, and cover the pot for a few minutes away from the heat, to allow the pasta to finish cooking and the meat to warm through. Put extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese on the table, for each person to add to the soup in his or her bowl.
If you’re using tinned chickpeas: add them to a mixture of stock – perhaps one made with a ham hock and vegetables (see the bean soup variation, above) – and stew made
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