Jota Triestina di Fagioli e Crauti

Ingredients

• 300 g borlotti beans, dried, soaked overnight
• 400 g crauti (barrel sauerkraut), home-fermented or high-quality barrel-fermented; reserve the liquid
• 400 g smoked pork ribs or luganega affumicata, cut into sections
• 200 g potato, peeled and cut into rough cubes
• 2–3 tbsp crauti liquid, reserved from the barrel; added to taste at the end
• Carnico variant
• 40 g farina gialla (coarse cornmeal), stirred in for body; substitute finely ground buckwheat for the Carnico-Saraceno variant
• 30 ml olio extravergine d'oliva, for finishing at the table

Method

1. 1
   Place the soaked borlotti beans in a pot with cold unsalted water. Bring to a simmer and cook for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. The beans are done when they yield completely to pressure between the fingers but hold their shape. Drain and reserve.
2. 2
   Place the crauti in a separate pot with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes to mellow excess acidity. Drain. The crauti should smell sour but no longer sharp — a softened, rounded ferment, not a raw, piercing one.
3. 3
   Place the smoked pork ribs or luganega affumicata in a large, heavy pot with cold water to cover generously. Bring slowly to a simmer. Add the pre-cooked crauti. Cook together over a steady, moderate simmer for 30 minutes, so the smoke and lactic sourness begin to merge into a single broth. The smell at this point should be at once smoky and faintly sour.
4. 4
   This is where the dish lives or dies. Add the potato cubes and the cooked borlotti beans. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes. The potato must dissolve partially into the broth, thickening it from within without assistance: the soup should coat a spoon with a starchy, opaque weight and show no clear broth beneath. If the potato has not broken down sufficiently, press a portion of the beans against the side of the pot and stir them through — the starch of both must be fully surrendered to the liquid.
5. 5
   For the Carnico variant, stir in the farina gialla in a thin stream, whisking to prevent lumps. Cook a further 5 minutes until the meal has swelled and the soup holds its body on the spoon with visible resistance.
6. 6
   Taste before adding any salt: the smoked pork and crauti carry significant salinity. Add 2–3 tablespoons of the reserved crauti liquid, tasting after each addition, until the soup reaches a sour note that is present but not aggressive. The finished soup should taste smoky first, sour second, starchy throughout.
7. 7
   Remove from heat and rest. The soup is at its best made a day ahead and reheated slowly. Finish each bowl at the table with a drizzle of olio extravergine and a turn of coarse black pepper.