Ah “la pasta e fagioli”! How many childhood memories in this humble dish! First of all, it was compulsory to eat it once per week because of the properties of pulses, as both my mother and father decreed, and almost every time we sat at the table my father had to exclaim: “Not even the king of Italy, if he was still around, could eat something as wholesome as this”. The beans, you see, were from our garden.
Ingredients
250 gr dried cannellini or borlotti beans. (or 1 can of beans)
250 gr short pasta, ideal would be the mixed type
Two or three tbsp. of canned tomatoes or a few fresh chopped tomatoes
fresh leaves celery (all those you can pick from one celery)
two dsp olive oil
Cook the beans following the instructions of the “Fagioli e bruschetta” recipe. Then add the oil, tomatoes, celery leaves. The colour of the sauce must be light pink, so don’t exceed wit tomatoes. Cook for 20 minutes on a moderate fire with lid on stirring occasionally. In the meantime, cook the pasta al dente in salted boiling water. Drain well and mix with the beans. In Naples we believe that pasta e fagioli is tastier if you let it rest for 5 minutes before you eat it. Sprinkle generously with fresh black pepper.