The Melting Teapot

I read several blogs, and a relatively recent discovery for me is the amazonblog, Al Dente.  There are several contributing authors, including two much-missed writers from the now defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Lately, I've especially been enjoying the contributions from StellaCadente*.  She posts interesting menus, fun insights about food, and mouth-watering recipes that look fabulous yet still seem manageable for home cooks like me.

I keep bookmarking her recipes to try soon, but yesterday’s was so tempting that I was determined to try it right away: Pasta e Fagioli.  I won’t include the entire recipe here, but please do follow the link to StellaCadente*'s post.

Start by making a tomato-basil sauce as a base:

Once the tomatoes have become a sauce, add beans and water to create a broth.  Just before it is ready to serve, a small pasta is added and cooked to al dente.  I tossed in some small seashells and put thick slices of roasted-garlic bread in the oven -- ten minutes later, the stew was ready.

We ladled the Pasta e Fagioli in a bowl, topped with it just a bit of shredded parm, and served it with the crunchy garlic toast.  Yum!

It sounds simple, using very basic flavors and canned ingredients, and it is indeed quite simple to make.  But, there are two important elements to this that make the flavor really come together.

• First, making a “sauce” from the tomatoes and herbs as the base of the soup makes a huge difference.  By creating a sauce base at the start,  the stew becomes more refined, less strident, than if the tomatoes were just mixed in at the same time as the beans. I have read that this is a traditional use for leftover marinara sauce.

• Second, the cannelloni beans are simmered just long enough that they begin to break down and create a creamy quality to the soup.  My husband said that he actually wondered for a moment if there was a melted chunk of cheese he was tasting, and then he realized it was the creaminess of the bean coming through.

We did also have a small amount of freshly shredded parm on top, which contributed to the creamy sensation (and added a nice level of saltiness).  The crunchy garlic bread was fabulous to dip in the soup as we ate.  This was a satisfying, home-style, comfort food that we have now added to our supper rotation.

Wine Pairing

The wine we chose was not a super sophisticated or expensive bottle, but the acidity and tannins worked nicely against the creamy herbaceous soup.  The 2007 Renato Ratti Dolcetto d'Alba Colombe is a fruity, refreshing Italian wine.  It had enough structure and good acidity to be the perfect table wine for this rustic meal.