Pasta and Beans
This is a classic Venetian recipe. The bean to use is a borlotti called Lamon, but Lingua di Fuoco
or Borlotti from Vigevano could also be used. I have suggested two different shapes of pasta.
The round, short ditaloni is what I am used to for Pasta e Fagioli. However, they are difficult to
find in England, so tagliatelle or even broken spaghetti are also acceptable. Serves 4–6
Ingredients:
120 g belly of pork or piece of ham
400 g fresh borlotti beans (Lamon)
1 onion (Musona)
1 carrot (Nantese of Chioggia)
1 head of celery (Dorato d’Asti)
scraped Parmesan crusts
500 g ditaloni or tagliatelle
olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Wash and scrape the pork. Immerse in boiling water for a few minutes. Put with all the other
ingredients except the pasta and olive oil in a heavy saucepan and cover with salted water.
Place on the hob and simmer for about 30 minutes until the beans are tender. Remove about
half the beans with a slotted spoon, purée them and set aside. Add the pasta to the saucepan.
When the pasta is cooked, return the puréed beans to the pan and stir in. Remove the meat,
vegetables and Parmesan crusts from the pan and cut them all into four portions. Serve the
soup in bowls, topped with a piece of meat and a piece of Parmesan crust. Drizzle a really good-
quality olive oil on top just before serving, accompanied with a large rustic loaf.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster