First courses recipes

Pasta with beans

Pasta e fagioli

Ingredients for 4 servings:
300 gr dried pinto beans
200 gr maltagliati pasta made with eggs
200 gr tomatoes pulp
30 gr butter
Grated Grana Padano cheese
1 carrot
1 onion
1 stick of white celery
An handful of parsley
Oil
Salt

Ready in: about 180 minutes

How to prepare the recipe: "Pasta with beans":
Soak pinto beans into abundant cold water and let them rest for one night.

Chop the onion and the carrot, celery and parsley; put everything in an earthenware casserole, add butter, 2 tbsp of oil and fry slightly at medium heat.

Add tomatoes pulp passed through a sieve and beans well drained; add as much water as necessary to cover the ingredients, salt and let it boil at medium heat.

Once beans are cooked, pass through a sieve half of them and put the mashed beans into the casserole again and bring to boil (you’ll should have a quite dense broth).

Add maltagliati pasta and cook, mixing frequently because the pasta, cooking in a dense broth, easily stick to the bottom of the casserole.

Spinkle the minestra with abundant grated Grana Padano and, if you like, with abundant pepper.
Serve immediately adding a little oil in every dish if you like.

Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 150 minutes
Difficulty: easy

Chef's advice
This is a typical starter dish of the Italian cuisine; the region of origin is uncertain, because it’s considered a typical dish in various areas, for example: Lazio, Campania, Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto.
Maltagliati are a typical kind of pasta of the Emilia-Romagna region.
The recommended wine is Merlot (red) or Cabernet (red).