Tuscan Bean Soup with Prosciutto
Beans, vegetables, and water are the basic components of many of northern Italy's world-renowned soups. A long, gentle cooking time guarantees the melding of textures and flavors. Here we've used chicken broth as the liquid and added thin slices of prosciutto as a sophisticated accent just before serving. Make a pot of this on a cold winter's day, enjoy the aroma that will fill your house, then eat. See for yourself how satisfying a bowlful of bean soup can be. A loaf of crusty bread, a piece of Asiago cheese, and good olive oil on the table are all you need as accompaniments.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried great Northern or cannellini beans picked over
- 1 small yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3 celery stalks
- ½ fennel bulb
- ¼ head white cabbage
- 12 flat-leaf parsley sprigs
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 6 cups chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ pound thinly sliced prosciutto see Note
Instructions
- Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water.
- Peel, trim, and chop the onion into large chunks. Peel, trim, and thinly slice the garlic. Wash and trim the celery, including some of the greens, then finely chop. Dice the fennel and shred the cabbage. Tie the parsley bunch together with kitchen twine.
- In a large heavy pot, sauté the onion in the olive oil over low heat, stirring, until translucent. Add the garlic, fennel, cabbage, and celery and sauté for a few more minutes, taking care that the garlic does not brown.
- Drain the beans, and add them to the pot. Then add the chicken broth, rosemary, and parsley. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to low; simmer the soup for about 1 ½ hours. Taste the beans-they should be tender. If not, since beans absorb liquid, add some hot water. Add the salt and pepper and cook for 15 minutes more. Discard the parsley.
- While the soup cooks, slice the prosciutto into narrow strips. Add them to the soup, and stir to combine well. Correct the seasonings, and serve.
If you have either hot or sweet Italian sausage on hand, you can use it in place of the prosciutto: Slice 2 sausages and sauté them separately in a medium skillet; add the slices to the soup with the salt and pepper in step 4.