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    Pasta · Recipe · Italy · Reference page

    Pasta e fagioli

    pasta e fagioli

    A thick soup of cannellini beans and small tubetti, flavoured with celery, garlic, tomato and prosciutto rind and finished with olive oil and parmesan. A dish of cucina povera; this version for two is by the Neapolitan-born chef Armando Percuoco.

    Pasta e fagioli with cannellini beans, small tubetti, tomato broth, parmesan and parsley in a white bowl.
    Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.
    Servings
    2
    Preparation
    15 min
    Cooking
    1 h 5
    Resting
    6 h
    Total
    7 h 20
    Difficulty
    Easy

    Equipment

    • Saucepan for the beans
    • Large saucepan for the soup; pot for the pasta
    Servings2

    Ingredients

    • Beans

    • Soup

    • To serve

    Shopping list

    Method

    1. Soak the beans for about 6 hours. Drain, cover with fresh water, bring to the boil and simmer until soft, about 45 minutes. Drain, keeping the cooking water.

      Timer · 45 min45:00

    2. Heat half the oil in the large saucepan and sauté the whole garlic cloves, the celery and the prosciutto rind for about 5 minutes.

      Timer · 5 min5:00

    3. Add the tomato, the beans and 250 ml of the bean water. Bring to the boil, take off the heat, pick out the garlic and rind, and season.

    4. Cook the tubetti in salted boiling water until a little under al dente. Drain and add to the soup.

    5. Bring the soup back to a simmer, add the rest of the oil and cook another 5 minutes, adding more bean water if it is too thick.

      Why The pasta finishes in the beans and releases starch that thickens the soup.

      Timer · 5 min5:00

    6. Serve sprinkled with parmesan and parsley and drizzled with more oil.

    Substitutions

    • Prosciutto rind → Leave it out and use a parmesan rind, or nothing, for a vegetarian soup.
    • Cannellini → Borlotti beans, used in many other regional versions.

    Common mistakes

    • Cooking the pasta fully before adding it: it goes soft in the soup.

    Storage & reheating

    Keeps 2 days in the fridge (UK FSA) but thickens as the pasta drinks the liquid; loosen with water and bring back to the boil.

    Safety

    Dried beans must be boiled until fully soft; never eat them undercooked. Contains gluten, celery and milk.

    Allergens

    Gluten · Celery · Milk

    Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

    Food of the poor, comfort for all

    SBS presents pasta e fagioli as one of the classic dishes of cucina povera, the food of the poor, and as comfort food for everyone. It is cooked all over Italy with different beans, pastas and fats, as a soup or almost as a stew; the atlas gives Armando Percuoco's thick cannellini and tubetti version, in which a little prosciutto rind replaces meat.

    [1]

    Bean water is the stock

    There is no stock: the water the beans cooked in carries their starch and flavour. Garlic and prosciutto rind give their taste to the oil and are then removed, and the pasta, cooked a little short, finishes in the beans, which it thickens.

    [1]

    How it connects

    Place

    • origin Italy In preparation
    • related Naples In preparation

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