There are two major categories of Italian hearty soups, or zuppe: those based on legumes of one sort or another, beans, chick peas, lentils, or whatever, and those that are based on green vegetables -- minestroni, in short. Here we have the former.
Though you may be more familiar with pasta e fagioli (pasta fazool), pasta goes just as well with ceci, or chickpeas, and this chickpea pasta soup is wonderful in winter.
A tasty, unusual Puglian soup made with eggplant and rice. Quite refreshing!
Barley Soup, or Minestron de Orzo: Barley is hardier than many other grains, and will grow up to considerable elevations -- as high as 1700 meters (a bit more than a mile), an altitude at which many other grains have difficulty growing. Because of this, many of the farmers in the mountains around Vicenza grow barley, and this is one of the standard soups. Tradition dictates one use the broth from boiling a cotechino, but regular meat broth is much easier to digest.
Pasta e Fagioli Vicentina Style, or Pasta e Fasui a la Visentina: Unlike most of the pasta e fagioli eaten in the Veneto, and, for that matter, in the rest of Italy, pasta e fagioli alla Vicentina is made with fresh egg noodles, which confer a particular texture to the soup. The beans are also important; Vicentini use borlotti from Lamon. In their absence, use cranberry beans.
Pea Soup, or Minestra di Piselli: One generally finds peas either in pasta sauces, or as a second course in Italy. So this is a little unusual, with the natural sweetness of the peas balanced by deft saltiness of pancetta; if you make it with care it will convince even those who generally turn their noses up at peas.
Lentil Soup with Rice and Spinach, or Minestra di Riso con Lenticchie e Spinaci: Rice is one of the finest ingredients for a soup, far superior (I think) to noodles at providing body, and works especially well with lentils.
Pasta and Lentil Soup, or Minestra di Pasta e Lenticchie: This is a classic Roman Jewish recipe.
Barley and Pea Soup, or Minestra di Orzo e Piselli: A straight forward recipe that will be nice in late spring when fresh peas reach the markets.
Barley and Bean Soup, Minestra di Orzo e Fagioli: A simple soup from Trieste.
Busecca, or Milanese Tripe Soup: According to Adriano de Carlo the word trippa, tripe in English, derives from the Arabic tarb, which means omentum, the folds of the peritoneum that cover the liver and the colon. I am not sure how one gets from omentum to the first stomach of the cow, but that’s what tripe is – no peritoneum involved. As is the case with the names of many other cuts of meat in Italy, trippa is not universal...
In discussing lentils, Mr. Vialardi, Chef to King Vittorio Emanuele, notes that they are stimulating and cause sweating, while being non-nutritious and extremely windy, and goes on to say that they're eaten wither whole or puréed, and can be served as a side dish with the addition of fresh cream and butter or good concentrated broth. He also tells how to make lentil soup.
Brodo Magro di Digiuno -- Lenten Soup -- Brodo Magro di Digiuno -- Lenten Soup
Good Thursday Soup, or Ministruni D'U Jovi R'O Lardaluoru: According to Pino Correnti, it was the custom in the Contea of Modica to prepare a minestrone whose primary ingredients were bits of lard, greens, legumes, and herbs; gather the family together to do it justice, and as they ate it set aside their differences. In other words, the soup helped them prepare themselves to greet Good Friday in the proper frame of mind.
Chickpea Soup From The Abruzzo: Tom recently wrote to ask for a chestnut and chickpea soup from L'Acquila, in the Abruzzo. I haven't come across it, but I have found recipes for both chestnut and chickpea soup in a book dedicated to La Cucina Abruzzese.
This recipe is drawn from a volume entitled Il Cuoco Piemontese, which was published in 1766. Though it was one of the first books written in Italian to present French recipes, given the importance of chestnuts in the Italian diet, especially among the poor, this recipe is likely Piemontese.
This is an old recipe from Versilia, the Tuscan coastal plain north of Pisa. The base is either squash or large zucchini, and cranberry beans, and in Versilian argot it's referred to as "ignorante," which translates as really rustic.
Garlic Soup, or Aigo Bouido: I found this is a book of garlic and hot pepper recipes. They say it's famous, though not where, and that people do vary it, for example by using bay leaves instead of sage. It is in any case a garlicky peasant dish, and will work well as a first course.
Zucchini and Eggplant Soup with Ditaloni: Ditaloni are thimble-sized (thimble is ditale in Italian) thick-sided pasta tuves that work very well in thick, hearty soups. In this case, a springtime soup.
Brovada, pickled turnips, are a specialty of Friuli Venzia Giulia, and though one more commonly finds saeurkraut in this soup (pronounced Yota; see here for the original version), around Cormons they use brovada instead.
Rich Jota, or Jota Ricca: Though one might not associate sauerkraut with Italy, it's common in Friuli Venezia Giulia, and is central to one of Trieste's signature soups, Jota (pronounced yota.) The original version of the soup was extremely frugal, but as prosperity has increased in the region people have enriched it, and this is a tasty modern version.
Basic Jota, or Jota di Base: Though one might not associate sauerkraut with Italy, it's common in Friuli, and is central to Jota (pronounced Yota), a simple, hearty soup from Trieste.
Eugene writes, "I am hoping that you can help me find a recipe. When I was a little boy growing up my grandmother live with us. She came from Torino, and she would make a casserole or at least it was in a big pan. She called it something like Zuppa puma tess, my spelling and Italian is probably not right. She would cook a pork roast and then in a large iron pot she would layer bread, cabbage, and pork...
Eugene writes, "I am hoping that you can help me find a recipe. When I was a little boy growing up my grandmother live with us. She came from Torino, and she would make a casserole or at least it was in a big pan. She called it something like Zuppa puma tess, my spelling and Italian is probably not right. She would cook a pork roast and then in a large iron pot she would layer bread, cabbage, and pork...
Pasta and/or Rice with Chestnuts: Dolores writes,
"My Grandmother was born on one of the small islands North of Sicily (Salina). When I was a small child, she would make little pasta (like Ditalini) with dried Chestnuts. It was a thin sauce with no tomatoes. I would love to make this dish and have even found the dried chestnuts in an Italian Grocery Store. "Do you know of any recipes like this?"
Chickpea and Fennel Soup, or Minestra di Ceci e Finocchi: This is a Sardinian recipe, and calls for wild fennel. Though it's the progenitor of bulb fennel, with wild fennel the part one uses is the fronds. If you cannot find it, I would use the leafy parts of the fronds of bulb fennel (you may have to ask your grocer to set them aside for you), and perhaps add a tablespoon or so of fennel seeds.
Chickpea Soup with Saffron, or Minestra di Ceci con Zafferano: This Sardinian soup is one of the more colorful soups I've come across.
Legume Soup for Saint Joseph's, or Maccu di San 'Gnuseppi: This is" Pino Correnti says in his Il Libro d'Oro della Cucina e dei Vini di Sicilia"a ritual soup for San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph, March 19), but is also a custom handed down from the celebrations of the spring equinox in classical time: the housewife clears her pantry of the leftover dried legumes in the expectation of the new harvest to come."
Chickpeas with Pasta, orCiciri Ca Pasta: This is a Sicilian variation on chickpea soup; Pino Correnti notes that it's from the eastern side of the island, and is one of the three classic dishes prepared on March 19 to honor San Giuseppe, who gained the island's lasting devotion by bringing the rains that ended a punishing drought.
The Cotechino-lentil combination is one of the most classic in Italian cooking. A cotechino is a rather gelatinous pork sausage about 3 inches in diameter and 8 long, and is very much a winter thing, traditionally served with the lentils that augur good fortune on New Year's Eve. In Italy cotechini are sold both raw and partially cooked. I have seen the partially cooked variety for sale outside the country but am not sure about the raw variety.
Rice and Lentil Soup, or Minestra di Riso e Lenticchie: Traditional dishes vary considerably from place to place. This particular soup is Umbrian, and is made with rice, cured lard, and tomatoes.
Lentil and Borragine Soup, or Minestra di Lenticchie e Borragine: Borragine is a wild grass whose stalks and leaves are covered with fine white hairs. It's used in Liguria, where it figures prominently in preboggion (a mixture of wild herbs and grasses), and Campania, where it's generally cooked with lentils. It's invariably cooked because the hairs would make it unpleasant raw. In the absence of borragine use spinach or beet greens; the results won't be quite the same but should be good.
Neapolitan Pasta with Lentils, or Pasta e Lenticchie: A vegetarian variation on pasta e fagioli, from Naples.
Neapolitan Lentil Soup, or Zuppa di Lenticchie: This is an amazingly simple soup.
Rice and Lentil Soup, or Riso e Lenticchie: This is a recipe from Lazio.
Pasta with Lentils, or Pasta e Lenticchie: This is a recipe from Lazio, the region governed by Rome.
Fava Bean and Beet Green Soup, or Fave e Aiete: During the middle ages it was custom in some parts of Italy to prepare a fava bean soup to give to the poor on November 2, in memory of the dead. This version is from Basilicata.
One normally thinks of pasta with beans -- pasta e fagioli or pasta fagiul -- and almost every Italian town has a recipe. One doesn't hear about pasta e ceci anywhere near as often, though the combination will work just as well. This recipe is from the Marche, where it was tradition to make a batch on the day the fields were sown with grain, in the hopes that the harvest would bring wheat the size of the chick peas.-- Pasta e Ceci
Brodo di Porco con Zitone, Pork Soup with Ziti and Greens: This recipe was originally devised to deal with pork bones left over from making sausage, and will be much better if the meat is not all stripped from the bones before you begin.
While we're on the subject of soup, I recently went to a restaurant called Matteuzzi (Via Certaldese 8, San Casciano Val di Pesa, on the road from San Casciano and Certaldo (near Florence); it's at the bottom of a hill and doesn't have a sign or a door (you enter through the delicatessen next to it when it's open, or the front door of the house when it's not), so you find out about it by word-of-mouth -- or by translating a soon-to-be-published restaurant guide, as I did.
Pasta e fagioli -- pasta with bean soup -- is a universal Italian dish that you'll find in every region. In Sardinia the pasta of choice is fregula, tiny blebs that provide delightful body, working from behind the scenes to support the beans.
This is from Aldo Santini’s La Cucina Maremmana; he got it from Donatella Cinelli, who may be better known for the Brunello she makes in Montalcino, but is also a superb cook. To make it you will need to cozy up to a butcher or delicatessen owner who has a prosciutto bone; in its absence substitute for it with the bone from a well seasoned and cured ham, such as one from Smithfield. It’s a slow-simmering soup that’s perfect for warming the whole house.
Though people tend to associate pasta with beans in Italian soups, plain bean soup is quite nice too, especially when it's nicely seasoned with garlic. Perfect in winter!
Pasta e fagioli, also known as pasta fazool (and many other variations on the spelling) is a universal comfort soup that almost everyone has come up with, and there are a tremendous number of local variations on the theme in Italy. This particular one is Tuscan.
The combination of Farro and Kale makes for a wonderful winter soup.
This hearty soup is especially common in the Garfagnana region, the mountains northwest of Lucca, but is popular in the rest of Tuscany as well.
Minestrone is a thick vegetable soup. This variation, from Sardinia, uses chickpeas.
A tasty version of pasta e fagioli made with canned beans (you could use fresh or soak some dried beans), which has a healthy grating of cheese (Locatelli) and gains power from ground chillis.
A thick barley and nettle soup that will also work well with other greens.
A pair of creamy, hearty soups from the Abruzzo.
The Abruzzo region is known for hearty fare made of frugal ingredients, for example this legume and artichoke soup.
A tasty looking recipe from the About vegetarian site.
A Vegan barley and chickpea soup.
From the Good & Garlicky, Thick & Hearty, Soul-Satisfying More Than Minestrone Italian Soup Cookbook, by Joe Famularo -- Posted on the Kitchen Link site.
