The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
...and a recipe for minestrone di fave (broad bean and pasta soup)
With apologies to Andy Williams, September is less Summer Sadness as we gently drift into colder weather and more Autumn Leaves as we tumble into crisp air with faint whisps of woodsmoke, shades of brown and gold scattered across the ground, crunching underfoot. It’s wrapping yourself in your favourite soft scarf, warming your hands on your favourite mug filled with hot tea, or coffee, or…whisper it, mulled wine… Dog walks in woolly hats, foraging hedgerows for vibrant jewels, curling up with a book warmly nestled against the cold outside.
It’s the time for slow cooked foods that soothe, nourish and heal; bowls of warm porridge with caramelised stone fruits for breakfast, creamy soups packed full of nutrition for lunch, one-pot slow cooked stews that you can simmer all day, tantalising you until dinner time with the smells emanating from the stove.
Whilst admittedly BBQ season may be over, this does not mean restricting cooking to indoors. Roast potatoes on a fire pit and as the edges turn crisp and golden, add a marinated steak to the grill, basting with garlic and rosemary butter…throw a couple of beef tomatoes, halved and salted on to char then sit around the glowing embers wrapped in a pashmina while sipping on a tumbler of red wine and gazing at the sky as the stars emerge.
I don’t know what it is about the peasant food of Europe that fills people with excitement, pride and a certain kind of romance but this is the time of year to indulge in this type of fayre; the slow cooking breaks down the toughness of meat, the hardworking muscles and the tendons that keep the animal moving in life. Likewise it is time and patience that render dried pulses into creamy pockets of flavour, melted into garden grown herbs and flavourful stock.
This recipe is one of my favourite women in food, Anna del Conte, the famed Italian food writer who helped bring the cuisine of her country and childhood to British shores.
Broadbean and Pasta Soup
makes: 4 - 6 servings
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 30 - 40 mins
ingredients:
2tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, sliced into rings
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2tbsp tomato puree
500g shelled broad beans (use frozen if you can't find fresh)
1.5L vegetable or chicken stock
125g small pasta (I used orzo)
salt and pepper
fresh parmesan, for grating
extra virgin olive oil or chilli oil
method:
pop the broad beans from their pods into a bowl and set to the side
heat the olive oil in a medium, heavy based saucepan and on a low heat, gently cook the onions for 5 - 10 minutes until soft
add the garlic, tomato puree and bay leaf and cook for a further minute, mixing everything together
add the broad beans and continue to cook for a further 3 minutes then add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes - or until the beans are cooked through
remove the bay leaf and discard then remove roughly half of the beans and as much of the sliced onion as you can
take the skins off the beans you have removed from the pan and set aside with the onions
blend the rest of the soup in the pan getting is as smooth as possible then return to the pan with the pasta, bring to the boil and simmer until the pasta is cooked
taste and season with salt and pepper
return the shelled beans and onions to the pan, mix through then divide between bowls
top with grated parmesan and either ev olive oil or chilli oil