Italian bean soup (not pasta fazool)

[Stinky The Clown]

I just hadda hankering and this got cooked.

1 lb of dried small white beans. Soak them overnight. And into the next early afternoon.

Drain them and put them in a pot. Cover with about an inch of water. Bring them to the boil and let then cook at a moderate simmer/boil for 20 minutes or so. This is likely to form a foamy scum on the water. Skim that off with a big spoon and then drain the beans. Don't rinse. Just drain them.

Cover again with water, add a bay leaf or three, and set back on the fire. -Do Not Add Salt**- Let them go at a simmer until pretty well cooked; an hour or two. Check them every so often so they don't absorb so much water that the beans are not covered. I had to add water three or four times.

While the beans are cooking, dice some garlic, onion, celery and carrots. I use half a large onion, two smallish carrots and two stalks of celery. And four cloves of garlic. Saute the aromatics in olive oil. Not too much oil; just enough to keep things from sticking.

After about 5 minutes, add a diced tomato to the aromatics and cook another 5 minutes or so. If the tomato is really juicy, remove some of the seeds and pulp. You do not want to make tomato sauce. Instead, you want nice, individual, identifiable pieces of tomato.

Remove about 2/3 of the beans from the pot and puree them. I used a stick blender. Now add them back to the pot along with the sauteed aromatics. Add some chopped fresh parsley and and oregano. I also put in a few ounces of white wine, but that's optional. Also, now is the time to add some salt and pepper. Add the salt slowly, to taste. This part is tricky. The dish can go from bland to salty faster than you imagine it can. Do a teaspoon or three to start and then let the seasonings mingle for a few minutes. Taste and adjust. Taste and adjust. Taste and adjust. Check the seasonings every 5 minutes or so until you're happy with it.

Let the whole thing cook about 30 minutes more. One last adjustment of the salt (and adjust the water content if need be) and that's it. The soup is very thick and appears sort of starchy (it does not taste that way, however). Almost like a gravy.

Serve it in a bowl with crusty bread on the side. After you put the soup in the bowl, drizzle the top with a nice, fruity olive oil and a generous hit of chopped fresh parsley and oregano. Then some parmesan.


** The no salt in dried beans deal ...... I'm not sure where this came from, but it was something I was always told about cooking dried beans. I seem to recall that the salt cooked into the beans makes them more prone to produce flatulence. Same thing with draining the water after the first 20 minutes. Both may be an old wives' tales, but I do them.

[troubleinwinter]

1. My recollection

is that dumping the soaking water is what gets rid of the flatulence, and salt in the early cooking supposedly toughens the skins, but once the skins are soft, salt OK.

I have no idea if any of it is actually true or "wives' tales".

[mopinko]

2. how i cook dried beans-

i usually soak for about an hour, not much more. (the frugal gourmet says long soaks at room temp lead to music.)
then i bring them to a boil, and only boil for about 15 minutes. then i turn them off, but leave them sit for about an hour, or until i am ready to finish whatever it is i am cooking. at this point they are pretty done, the texture of canned beans.
this leaves them firm, but nicely done. saves energy, too.

[flamin lib]

3. OK, here's the deal with beans. Take it to the bank, or recipe box.

Beans cause gas because they contain vegetable proteins not digestible by humans. We lack an enzyme that can be replaced by that contained in Beano. For me it takes about 3 tablets. YMMV.

Rinse, soak, salt it makes no difference. Period, end of statement.

Beans have a shell that is almost impermeable to water. The only entry to the interior is through the tiny opening at the "eye". That's why they take so long to cook.

Any seasoning that flavors the beans (salt) must also enter through the same tiny opening.

Mopinko has the basic recipe right--slow, low heat and season up front.

My method: 3-4 cups water to 1 cup beans. Season water until it tastes too salty by quite a bit. I add cumin, bay leaves, oregano, onion, garlic and just about anything else that strikes my fancy. Ham or ham bones are good. The salt is the important part, this your only chance to season the interior of the beans.

Bring to a boil just barely. Reduce heat to a very slow simmer--one or two bubbles a second. Do not boil because it breaks up the beans. Give it a couple of hours and they should b done.

Slow cooker method: Same as above for seasoning but throw it all in and set on high (150 watt) for 4-5 hours.

It works for me and is very repeatable.

Beano is your friend. And the friend of all around you.

[eridani]

4. Actually, it's storage sugars and not proteins

In addition to starch, beans have bata linked galactose sugars, and our guts don't have beta galactosidase, but intestinal flora do. Take sucrose (glucose + fructose) and stick a galactose molecule on it with a beta linkage and you get raffinose. Add another galactose to get stachyose. And one more to get verbascose. Lots of those sugars are what make beans the magical fruit. Beano is a crude algal extract of beta galactosidase.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I paid the price this morning for the quantity of beans consumed yesterday evening

It was pretty much a one for one swap. :)

[hippywife]

5. In our family, pasta fazool

has never, ever been soup, either. It's always been elbow macaroni and great northern beans, with seasonings, a very light coating of tomato sauce and heavy on the parmesan, all stirred together in the pot. In other words, a pasta dish.

I'm not a bean eater but hubband is so he would probably enjoy your soup. I just put them in the crockpot with water and leave them to simmer. I have to add more water later because my crockpot, if set on high, jiggles the lid which reduces the seal and they do cook down. Then I add seasonings later.

[sazemisery]

6. This makes me salivate and its early morning

I love the "gravy" northern beans make. I serve mine over corn waffles. Yummy.