Pasta Grannies: taglioni and bean soup recipe

SERVES 6

Ingredients

For the pasta
*300 g 00 flour or plain flour
*1 egg, beaten
*90 ml water

For the sugo finto
*150 g dried borlotti beans or 300 g cooked beans
*2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
*1 onion, finely chopped
*1 carrot, finely diced
*400 g passata 
*3 bay leaves
*1 tablespoon powdered rosemary leaves 
*2 thick-cut rashers of unsmoked pancetta (optional)
*1 garlic clove (optional)
*salt

To serve
*grated Parmigiano Reggiano (optional)

Method

1. If you are using dried borlotti beans, place them in a bowl and cover with enough water to submerge them by several centimetres (at least a couple of inches).

2. Add a teaspoon of salt and leave them for at least 8 hours, or ideally overnight. Drain them of their soaking water, place them in a pan with fresh water and simmer them until cooked. How long the beans take to cook will depend on their freshness, but it will be around 45 minutes–1 hour. Drain and set aside.

3. Tip the flour onto your pasta board in a heap. Make a well and add the beaten egg. Use a fork to mix the flour gradually into the egg, followed by half the water. Start forming it into a dough and if it feels a bit dry, add a little more water. You want to end up with a firm dough that holds together easily but is not sticky. Knead for 10 minutes. Cover it with a tea towel (or put it in a lidded bowl) and leave it for 30 minutes.

4. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 2 mm. You now want to make short ribbons of pasta around 10 cm long and 5 mm wide – it doesn’t have be exactly this, just be consistent so they will take the same amount of time to cook. Ada has a good trick to speed up the process: roll the dough around your pin, take a knife and slice lengthways along the pin to create wide strips of pasta. If these pasta lengths are too wide, slice them again in half lengthways. Then assemble the lengths one on top of the other. Slice across them at 5 mm intervals to create short ribbons. Let the pasta rest while you make the sugo finto.

5. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and fry the onion and carrot over a medium heat until they are soft but not caramelised.

6. Add the passata, bay leaves, rosemary and beans. Season with salt and give everything a good stir, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.

7. If using pancetta, sauté it in a small pan over a medium heat along with the whole garlic clove, long enough for the fat to be released. Remove the garlic and pour the fat into the beans. You can keep it to one side to sprinkle over the final dish.

8. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, then add the pasta. Cook for 2 minutes – test for doneness – then remove about half to two-thirds of the water (depending on how chunky or thin you like your soup).

9. Add the bean mixture, stir it through the pasta and sprinkle over cheese (if desired).

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Extracted from Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks by Vicky Bennison (Hardie Grant, £20) Photography by Emma Lee.