Tomato pasta soup with rosemary
This is based on an old Italian favourite called Pasta Fagioli. It’s a hearty dish
half way between a soup and a stew. Don’t forget to finish it with a good glug
of the best olive oil you can find.
Serves 4
• 1 red onion, peeled • 1 carrot, peeled • 2 sticks of celery, trimmed
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled • olive oil • 80g/2_oz any dried pasta
• 3 x 400g/14oz cans of good quality plum tomatoes
• 2 x 400g/14oz cans of borlotti or cannellini beans
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a sprig of rosemary, leaves picked
Chop the red onion, carrot, celery and garlic as finely as you can and sweat
them gently in a little olive oil in the bottom of the pressure cooker until
soft.
Place the pasta in a polythene bag, squeeze all the air out of it and bash it
with a rolling pin, smashing the pasta into little pieces.
Add the tomatoes, beans, broken pasta and 1
1
/2 cans of water to the pot,
and season with a little salt and pepper.
Clamp the lid on the pressure cooker, set the steam to the ‘vegetable’
setting and when the cooker has come up to pressure, cook on a
medium heat for 20 minutes. Release the steam, remove the lid and stir.
If the soup is a little thin, place back on the heat and reduce for
5 minutes or so.
Smash up the rosemary in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt, pour a
glug of oil into the mortar and then pour into the soup. Taste and season
with salt and pepper if necessary, and serve with a nice glass of Chianti.
5
•
1 red onion, peeled
•
1 carrot, peeled
•
2 sticks of celery, trimmed
•
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
•
olive oil
•
80g/2
3
/4
oz any dried pasta
•
3 x 400g/14oz cans of good
quality plum tomatoes
•
2 x 400g/14oz cans of borlotti
or cannellini beans
•
sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
•
a sprig of rosemary,
leaves picked
