Fasolia Gigante Soup with Spinach
Recipe from "Love Soup" by Anna Thomas, copyright 2009. Reprinted with permission from W.W. Norton and Co.
Fasolia Gigante are giant white beans that look like lima beans on steroids. They are huge, and like all dried beans they get bigger as they soak and cook, until some are about the size of a quarter. When they are cooked slowly and long enough, they become beautifully tender yet keep their shape, and at the same time make a lovely broth. If you can't find these giants, use large dried lima beans, which are just as delicious in this soup.
In general I don't soak beans overnight, but in the case of these giants it is a useful thing to do; they're just too big to cook evenly to tenderness otherwise. So rinse the beans and soak them in 8 cups (2 liters) of soft or spring water. In the morning, drain and rinse. (If you are using lima beans you can skip this step, but you'll have a shorter cooking time if you do soak the beans.
With its lively taste of ripe tomatoes, this is a good summer soup for those times when you want something hearty. It's fine in winter as well; you can use a can of good diced tomatoes instead of fresh ones.
Ingredients
- 1-ΒΌ cups dried Fasolia Gigante or large dried lima beans
- 5 large cloves garlic peeled
- 3 tablespoons loosely packed fresh sage leaves
- 1-2 teaspoons sea salt plus more to taste
- 1 large yellor or red onion
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- fresh or dried thyme
- fresh rosemary
- 8 ounces small spinach leaves or chopped spinach
- 12 ounces ripe red tomatoes peeled and chopped
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 cups basic light vegetable broth or canned vegetable broth
- garnishes:
- fruity green olive oil
- white-wheat croutons
Instructions
- Put the soaked beans in a large soup pot with about 7 cups water, or 9 cups if using lima beans that have not been soaked. Add the whole garlic cloves and the sage leaves. Bring the water to a boil, then cover, lower the heat, and simmer for a long time -- perhaps for a couple of hours -- until the beans are perectly tender. The cooking time will vary with the age of the beans. Add more water as needed to keep the beans well-covered, and when they are tender, stir in 1 teaspoon salt.
- While the beans simmer, chop the onion coarsely and saute it in the olive oil with a sprinkle of sea salt, stirring it often over a medium-low flame until it's soft and golden, about 20 minutes. Stir in a big pinch of thyme and the same of rosemary and cook for a few more minutes. Add the onion, spinach, and chopped tomato to the beans and their broth, as well as a good amount of freshly ground black pepper, anad let the soup simmer another 15 minutes. Taste it and correct the seasoning with more salt if needed (the beans will have absorbed some of the salt during this time).
- If the soup seems thick, add some of the vegetable broth. I like the clear flavors of the broth that this soup makes for itself, starting with the beans and garlic, sweetened by onion and enlivened by juicy tomatoes, with a piney hint of rosemary, but if it seems more a stew than a soup, I add broth.
- Serve the soup in big bowls, with a splash of fruity olive oil and a scattering of croutons on top of each serving. Another nice way to serve this is to place a thick, crisply toasted slice of baguette in the bottom of each bowl and pour the soup over it.