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.
Prep Time: 8 hours, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Ingredients:
- A pound (400 g) dried cannellini beans
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- An onion
- Red wine vinegar (about 1/3 cup)
- Toasted bread
Preparation:
Continuing with the introduction,
In any case, the cooking is excellent and the menu (recited) is quite traditional. One of the first course dishes was Zuppa alla Lombarda, Lombard soup, which mother-in-law Graziella recalled from the war -- a bean soup she didn't particularly like, but her brother did.
Why not? thought I and tried it. It's extremely simple, cooked cannellini (white) beans served in bean broth seasoned with salt and not much else, with thin slices of toasted bread and a liberal drizzling of olive oil in the restaurant's version, and quite good.
Giovanni Righi Parenti gives a somewhat different version in La Cucina Toscana.
He says it's from Versilia, the coastal plain west of Lucca, and begins by explaining the name Zuppa Lombarda: The dish is said to have been the favorite of Bernardino Zenderini of Brescia (a city in Lombardia), under whose direction a squadron of Lombards drained the marshes of Viareggio in 1740, much as they had some of the marshes of the Venetian Lagoon.
To serve 6 you'll need about a pound (400 g) dried cannellini beans (white beans), which you will want to soak for several hours in lightly salted water (keep in mind that you will be cooking the beans in this water when you add the salt).
Once they have soaked, sauté a finely sliced onion in 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil, and once it turns translucent add the beans and the water they soaked in; season with freshly ground pepper and more salt if need be. Simmer until the beans are quite done. Remove the beans from the pot with a slotted spoon or strainer and blend them. Stir a half a glass of red wine vinegar into the bean broth and return the blended beans to the pot. Bring the pot back to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally lest the blended beans stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
While the soup is simmering, toast several thin slices of Tuscan-style bread, drizzle them with extravirgin olive oil, and line your soup bowls with them. Ladle the soup over the bread and serve, with a cruet of olive oil for those who want more, freshly grated Parmigiano, and coarsely cracked pepper (crush it in a mortar rather than using a grinder).
Mr. Parenti also notes that in many parts of Tuscany the soup's name has shifted into "zuppa bastarda."
Why not? thought I and tried it. It's extremely simple, cooked cannellini (white) beans served in bean broth seasoned with salt and not much else, with thin slices of toasted bread and a liberal drizzling of olive oil in the restaurant's version, and quite good.
Giovanni Righi Parenti gives a somewhat different version in La Cucina Toscana.
He says it's from Versilia, the coastal plain west of Lucca, and begins by explaining the name Zuppa Lombarda: The dish is said to have been the favorite of Bernardino Zenderini of Brescia (a city in Lombardia), under whose direction a squadron of Lombards drained the marshes of Viareggio in 1740, much as they had some of the marshes of the Venetian Lagoon.
To serve 6 you'll need about a pound (400 g) dried cannellini beans (white beans), which you will want to soak for several hours in lightly salted water (keep in mind that you will be cooking the beans in this water when you add the salt).
Once they have soaked, sauté a finely sliced onion in 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil, and once it turns translucent add the beans and the water they soaked in; season with freshly ground pepper and more salt if need be. Simmer until the beans are quite done. Remove the beans from the pot with a slotted spoon or strainer and blend them. Stir a half a glass of red wine vinegar into the bean broth and return the blended beans to the pot. Bring the pot back to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally lest the blended beans stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
While the soup is simmering, toast several thin slices of Tuscan-style bread, drizzle them with extravirgin olive oil, and line your soup bowls with them. Ladle the soup over the bread and serve, with a cruet of olive oil for those who want more, freshly grated Parmigiano, and coarsely cracked pepper (crush it in a mortar rather than using a grinder).
Mr. Parenti also notes that in many parts of Tuscany the soup's name has shifted into "zuppa bastarda."
