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1
The day before, soak all dried legumes requiring it — borlotti, cannellini, cicerchia, chickpeas, dried favas, and the seventh variety — in separate vessels of cold water overnight, keeping them apart so that each absorbs at its own rate and none takes on the colour or flavour of its neighbour. Drain and rinse each individually before cooking. The lentils require no soaking.
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2
Cook each dried legume in its own pot of unsalted water — salt would tighten the skins and leave the centres chalky — with a portion of the mazzetto aromatico simmered in the cooking water. Each legume has a different cooking time: chickpeas and cicerchia are slowest, lentils fastest. Each pot is done when its legume is completely tender throughout but holds its shape; reserve all cooking liquids separately, as they carry the flavour that will later build the soup's body.
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3
Cook each fresh spring vegetable separately — blanch in salted boiling water until just tender: peas and broad beans briefly (2–3 minutes), spinach until wilted, asparagus tips until a knife meets no resistance, fennel until translucent at the edges. Keeping them separate preserves each vegetable's colour and prevents the more assertive flavours from flattening the delicate ones. Remove each and reserve.
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4
In a wide, heavy-bottomed pot large enough to hold the entire finished soup, melt the lard over a moderate flame, then add the guanciale and render until the fat runs and the meat begins to colour at the edges, drawing out the deep, savoury fat that will perfume the whole dish. Add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and peperoncino and cook slowly, stirring, until the vegetables are completely soft, golden, and collapsed — the fat should run clear and fragrant. This is the base that ties everything together: it must be patient and thorough.
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5
This is where the dish lives or dies. Into the soffritto pot, add the cooked dried legumes one variety at a time, each with a measure of its own cooking water, so that the distinct character of each legume enters the pot on its own terms rather than being lost in a single anonymous pour. Build the soup progressively, tasting for salt after each addition, bearing in mind that the cured meats are already heavily salted. The combined liquid should give a dense, spoonable consistency — neither a stew nor a thin broth; add the mazzetto aromatico and allow everything to unify over a low flame for at least thirty minutes, stirring with care so the legumes do not break.
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6
Add the separately cooked fresh spring vegetables to the pot in order of their robustness — fennel first, then peas and broad beans, then asparagus, then spinach and any delicate greens last — so that nothing overcooks and loses its colour in the residual heat of the soup. Stir gently. The soup should show the full colour range of the season: green, ivory, and gold throughout.
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7
Add the seven pasta shapes directly to the pot, beginning with the largest or thickest and adding the smallest last, so that all finish cooking together rather than the smallest shapes turning to paste while the larger ones catch up. Stir to prevent sticking; the pasta is done when it is cooked through but still offers slight resistance, at which moment the soup will have thickened further from the pasta starch. Remove and discard the mazzetto, taste once more for salt, and serve immediately from the pot.