Sagne e Fagioli con Pomodoro Fresco alla Molisana

Molise

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The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies

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Origin

Molise, southern Italy

Description

One of Molise's most enduring preparations: sagne — broad, flat hand-cut pasta similar to maltagliati but cut more deliberately into irregular quadrilateral shapes — cooked together with dried borlotti beans in a fragrant tomato base. Borlotti beans soaked overnight are half-cooked in plain water, then the cooking liquid is reserved. A soffritto of onion, celery, carrot and lard is built, ripe fresh tomatoes (or passata in winter) are added and reduced to a dense sauce, then the half-cooked beans and their liquid are added. The sagne are made fresh from semolina and water, cut roughly and dropped directly into the simmering bean-tomato broth for the final 12 minutes. Finished with raw olive oil, torn basil and peperoncino.

III

The Thread

—The canonical southern Italian bean-and-pasta soup cooked together in the bean broth — the Molise version uses flat irregular pasta rather than tubular factory forms Neapolitan

—Northern variation of bean-and-pasta soup where borlotti beans are partially passed and partially left whole, finished with olive oil — different pasta shape, same core technique Venetian

—Beans cooked together with pasta or bread in a single pot — the bean cooking liquid provides the starchy body that ties the dish together Portuguese

Flavour Context

Earthy borlotti beans; sweet, dense tomato; wheat-forward flat pasta; lard richness from the soffritto; olive oil freshness at the finish — the quintessential southern Italian comfort preparation.

Pillars V — VII

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