Pasta e Fagioli

One of the reasons for me starting this blog is that a lot of people think they are eating Tuscan, but it is not true. Just the fact that a dish has some Tuscan ingredients, make them think that it is a Tuscan recipe! But what makes those dishes non Tuscan is their complexity. Tuscan cooking is very simple, it gains its flavours by the quality of the ingredient rather than by their amount and complexity. Just to give you an overview on how simple our cooking is, one of the snacks that has characterized my childhood afternoons, when the homework were ready and just before meeting my friend for playing, is Pane e olio, which means bread and oil. So cut a slice of Tuscan bread, season with olive oil and salt and you will have the best snack ever! In the summer rubbing a ripened tomato to it would make it even tastier!
Going back to Tuscan which is not Tuscan, this came into my mind when a British colleague of mine told me he had prepared a Tuscan dish: pasta e fagioli, by copying the recipe from a Tuscan cookbook. And he started to describe all the vegetables that he used for it. Wait a second. Pasta e fagioli is just pasta and beans. There is not much more in it! So Stephen, if you want to prepare a good pasta e fagioli just follow this:

For 4 persons
300 g of dry cannellini beans
200 g of pasta
4 tablespoons of olive oil (please I mean extra vergin olive oil, do not make me repeat this over and over, there is no other olive oil to us)
Fresh rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook the beans (see over) and keep the cooking water (broth). Smash them and add the pulp to the broth. In case it is too thick add some water. The thickness should be that of a soup, not more than that. Liquid but firm! Adjust the salt and add some pepper. In a small saucepan fry the rosemary (1 stem) and the garlic (2 cloves) in the olive oil. Make sure that the temperature is not too high so that you can fry for a few minutes without burning the garlic. In this way you pass all the garlic and rosemary aromas to the oil. Throw the oil into the soup (be careful in doing so) being careful not to add the garlic and rosemary. Bring the soup to the boil and then add the pasta. Pasta has to be short and small. I would suggest ditali, or spaghetti or tagliatelle cut to 3-4 cm length. Stir continuously as the broth and the pasta tend to stick to the bottom of the pan. Once the pasta is cooked, serve hot with a C of olive oil and at wish garnish with some rosemary leaves and some black pepper.
Variations:
Someone puts also some whole beans to the soup, but I like it creamy as described above.
Someone adds some chilli to it, but again I do not like like that.
In other parts of Italy, pasta e fagioli is prepared with Borlotti beans. I do not mind that, even I like the delicacy of Cannellini beans.
You do not have time to cook the beans and want to prepare pasta e fagioli in a few minutes? I have not told you that but before buying a frozen ready meal to put into the microwave you can:
Get a can of cannellini beans (with no sauce). Throw away the water, wash the beans and smash them! Add water until you get a creamy soup. Bring to boil with a small bit of vegetable stock cube to it, adjust the salt afterwards and then proceed as above with the oil and the pasta.