Soupe au Pistou — Provençal Vegetable Soup with Basil Paste

Ingredients

• 200 g dried white beans, coco or borlotti; soaked overnight
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium leek, diced
• 2 sticks celery, diced
• 2 tbsp Provençal olive oil, for sweating
• 2 litres water, not stock
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 medium potatoes, diced
• 2 medium courgettes, diced
• 150 g green beans, cut into short lengths
• 3 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 150 g small pasta, coquillettes, macaroni, or broken spaghetti
• to taste salt and black pepper
• For the pistou
• 3 large cloves garlic
• 1 pinch coarse salt, for pounding with garlic
• 60 g fresh basil leaves
• 80 g Parmesan, finely grated
• 100 ml Provençal olive oil, best available; added in a thin stream

Method

1. 1
   Drain the soaked beans and cover with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 45 minutes until nearly tender but not collapsing. Reserve the beans and their cooking liquid. They are ready when a bean yields cleanly to pressure between two fingers but holds its shape.
2. 2
   In a large pot, sweat the diced onion, leek, and celery in olive oil over a medium flame for 10 minutes. The vegetables should have softened and turned translucent, giving off a gentle, sweet aroma without colouring.
3. 3
   Add the 2 litres of water, the drained beans with their cooking liquid, the diced carrots, and the diced potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. The carrots and potatoes should be approaching tenderness but offer firm resistance to a skewer.
4. 4
   Add the diced courgettes, cut green beans, diced tomatoes, and pasta. Simmer for a further 10 to 15 minutes. The pasta must be al dente and each vegetable must retain its own identity — this is where the dish lives or dies; vegetables pressed to uniformity cannot be recovered, and pasta cooked beyond al dente will continue to swell in the hot broth.
5. 5
   Season the soup with salt and black pepper. It should taste clean and bright, with each vegetable distinct on the palate.
6. 6
   Pound the garlic cloves with the coarse salt in a mortar until a completely smooth paste forms — no raw fragments remain. The paste will be white and even, with a sharp, pungent smell.
7. 7
   Add the fresh basil leaves to the mortar in batches and pound steadily until the paste is vivid and uniformly green. Work in the grated Parmesan, then introduce the olive oil in a thin, continuous stream, pounding throughout, until the pistou is thick, cohesive, and intensely aromatic. Do not use a blender.
8. 8
   Ladle the soup into wide bowls. Place a generous tablespoon of pistou in each bowl and bring the remainder to the table with extra grated Parmesan. The diner stirs the pistou through the hot soup; the heat releases the basil's volatile oils in an immediate, heady rush of fragrance that signals the dish is complete.