Pasta e Fagioli

Ingredients

• 1 x 400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 x 400g tin borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
• 1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock
• 200 g ditalini or small pasta shells
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• salt, black pepper, and dried chilli flakes
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 120 g pancetta, diced
• 1 parmesan rind
• 40 g parmesan, finely grated, to serve
• Crusty ciabatta, to serve

Method

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a heavy pot over a medium heat. Add the pancetta in a single layer — don't crowd it — and cook for 4–5 minutes until the fat has rendered and the edges are golden and crisp. You want proper colour here; that fond on the bottom of the pot is the backbone of the broth.
2. Add the diced onion with a good pinch of salt and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft, translucent and just starting to catch at the edges. The salt now pulls the moisture out and helps the onion melt rather than fry.
3. Stir in the sliced garlic, rosemary sprigs and chilli flakes if using. Cook for 30 seconds, no more — just until fragrant and the garlic turns pale gold. Don't let it burn; burnt garlic turns the whole pot bitter and there's no rescuing it.
4. Pour in the chopped tomatoes along with a ladle of the stock to break them down — bare tinned tomatoes simmered alone taste of heated tin. Cook over a medium-high heat for 5–6 minutes, stirring and scraping the fond up off the bottom, until the tomatoes have darkened to a deeper, brick-red shade and smell sweet rather than sharp.
5. Add both tins of beans, the parmesan rind if using, and pour over the rest of the stock. Bring to a gentle boil, then drop to a steady simmer for 15 minutes so the broth takes on real depth from the rind and the beans start giving up their starch.
6. Fish out the rosemary sprigs and parmesan rind. Ladle roughly a third of the soup into a bowl, blend or mash it to a rough purée, then stir it back in — this is what gives the broth its creamy, clinging body without any cream.
7. Bring the soup back to a steady simmer. Salt the broth generously now — it should taste like a proper seasoned soup, almost like the sea, because this is the only chance the pasta has to season itself from the inside. Stir in the ditalini and cook to the packet time minus 1 minute, stirring regularly so nothing sticks, until just al dente.
8. Pull the pot off the heat and rest for 2 minutes — the pasta keeps drinking liquid as it sits, so don't skip this. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Taste, season with more salt and plenty of black pepper, taste again. Adjust now, at the pot, not at the table.
9. Ladle into deep bowls. Finish each with a generous grating of parmesan, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a scatter of torn basil leaves over the top, with crusty bread alongside if you like.