Sometimes moments of brilliance are thrust upon us, we stop turn around and wonder who they were ment for because surely it wasn’t us, but at the same time we are so so glad. If you are a cook from the school of FlyBytheSeatofyourPants(FBSP) like I am, then you definately know what I am talking about. Whilst I would love to be the good homemaker that makes a weeks menu up and then shops exclusivly from it, there is just no no no way I can do it, it is just never going to happen. But luckily since I am from the school of FBSP then I know that I can go shopping and Iwill always beable to find use for whatever I buy.
When I went shopping last week and bought a big bag of beautifuly fresh borlotti beans I had inteded to make a bean salad with them, but the oppurtunity for the salad went out the window and I wanted to make something new. As luck would have it I was also in possesion of a very large amount of tinned cherry tomates (really good ones) that needed to be used ASAP. I have been tossing around the idea for a tomatoish soup for awhile, but I am not quite ready to make the standard rendition yet, esp since I wanted it to have fresh borlotti beans in it, so I thought about it and came up with an inspiration focus (very important if you are an FBSPer like me). That inspiration focus was pasta e fagioli but I am not willing to call my finished dish by the same name as it was an inspiration and not what I actually made. What I did end up with however was some really really good tomato soup with borlotti beans (fresh kick dried and tinneds BUTT!) and some very spicy meatball. Oh wow is it ever good, the tomato sauce is thick and smooth and almost creamy. The big ring of oil in the photograph is not as could possibly be imagined fat, it is instead ring of bright fresh peppery and grassy olive oil, the oil contributes immensly to the fragrence of the finished soup, if you are unable to buy some really fresh really good olive oil then I would leave it off.

Here is the basic method, I am sure that variations in quatities and some ingrediants can be made and the soup will still be excellent

Tinned tomatoes ( These must be really good Italian ones!!!) p
Sofrito - mine was onions, fennel and garlic (celery and carrots would be great here too)
Red wine
Bay leaves
Anchovies (opt)
Shelled fresh borlotti beans (about 1 kilo unshelled)
200gms or so of pasta I used bows, but macaroni would be good ..
A couple big handfuls of parsley chopped
Some really good olive oil
pecorino or parmesan

Meatballs
500gms beef mince
3 cloves of garlic
1 large chilli
200gms of salami (nice italian spicy sopresa)
10 large sage leaves
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
1 chunk of hard italian grating cheese
Puree the everything except the mince, add the mince and knead for about 5 mins. Leave this to let the flavours absorb whilst you do everything else

Saute off the diced sofrito in plenty of olive oil over low heat, when they are softened and golden add a good cup of red wine. Let this reduce, add the tomatoes, bay leaves and anchovies. Let this simmer for about 20 mins. Add the borlotti beans and let the mixture simmer you may need to add some water. Let this simmer for about 1/2 hour. Add the pasta and check the water level, the micture should be pretty thick but remember the pasta will absorb afair amount of water. Let this simmer for about 20 mins. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper and about a tbsp of balsamic vinegar
Make the mince into balls and add them too the soup, make sure that the broth is just simmering and cook for about 15 mins. Test the meatballs for doneness, when done add the parsley and serve it up, add some olive oil and grated cheese to each bowl, Enjoy!! But remember the soup will probably be really hot! (temp not spicyness)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 11:46 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.