Across Italy · No.53 / 103
Pasta e fagioli
Pasta e fagioli
Borlotti beans, aromatic vegetables, a little cured pork, and tomato simmer together; some beans are puréed before ditaloni finish in the same pot.
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Meet the dish
An Italian home dish in which short pasta cooks in bean broth
Borlotti cooking liquid and puréed beans form the sauce for short tubular pasta cooked in the same pot. Aromatic vegetables, lard, and prosciutto add depth, while bean starch rather than dairy supplies the final body.
Pasta shapes to use
- Ditaloni rigati, small enough to share each spoonful with beans
Key ingredients
- Dried Borlotti beans
- Ditaloni
- Tomato purée
- Prosciutto
- Rosemary
- Bay leaf
Follow the cooking scenes
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Step 1: Soak and cook the beans
Soak dried Borlotti beans overnight. Replace the water and simmer them with bay leaf for about 80 minutes, until tender but still holding their shape. Keep the beans in their cooking liquid.
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Step 2: Simmer the aromatic base
Cook onion, carrot, and celery in lard or oil for about five minutes, then add garlic, prosciutto, and rosemary. Add beans and tomato purée, simmer for about 20 minutes, and blend two ladlefuls until smooth.
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Step 3: Finish pasta in the bean pot
Add enough bean liquid to simmer the ditaloni directly in the pot until tender. Return the bean purée, adjust the consistency, stir in chopped rosemary off heat, cover, and rest for three minutes.
What to watch for
- Keep the bean cooking liquid. Adding it gradually controls both pasta doneness and consistency without washing out the flavor.
- Blend only part of the beans. The purée gives body while intact beans preserve texture and prevent the dish becoming a uniform soup.
What sets it apart
The pasta cooks in bean liquid, and puréed beans themselves bind the dish rather than sitting beside separately sauced pasta.