Christmas is approaching, and even if this year will look different from past ones, some things remain the same.
There are the holidays, the dates marked in red on the calendar — the moments when lunches and dinners flow into one long, shared occasion, even within the quiet intimacy of family life.
And then there are the ordinary days, the ones when most of us return to work. That might mean a trip back to the office or settling at the small desk in a corner of the house you set up in recent months to help you focus and preserve a sense of continuity.
For us, these quieter days are when we reflect on the year: we review what we have done, sketch budgets and plans, list expectations and the bets we took. Once I called them dreams; now I prefer to call them projects. Along with the vague idea of what I want to achieve, I write down numbers, hours of commitment, skills needed and possible collaborations.
If the holiday meals demand more elaborate work — appetizers, desserts and roasts filling the house with comforting aromas — the ordinary days call for simplicity.
These ordinary days sit close to the festive ones on the calendar, so they deserve extra care: a small celebration of the everyday, which this year has required a rare kind of endurance.
While we work at the kitchen table — the yellow marble one passed down through generations until it landed here — I put a pot of beans on the stove. The night before, turning off the Christmas lights, I remembered to soak them in cold water. Now they just need to cook. Nothing equals the creaminess and depth of flavour that beans gain in a wood-fired oven after bread and pizza, but lately I value the slow, steady comfort of a pot simmering on the hob as life goes on around it.
When the beans are tender and fragrant, and our planning continues at the table, I move to the stove and make pasta e fagioli — the classic Italian bean-and-pasta soup. It’s the kind of dish that embodies tradition’s warm embrace, especially on the cold, demanding days tucked between holidays.
Bean and pasta soup
Recipe developed in collaboration with Pastificio Liguori.
Pastificio Liguori is one of Italy’s oldest pasta makers, with roots stretching back to 1795. They use high-quality durum wheat from southern Italy and the pure spring water of the Monti Lattari Regional Park. The mixture of careful ingredients and traditional production methods — bronze dies and slow drying at low temperatures — gives Liguori pasta a distinctive texture and flavour. Their PGI certification, tied to production in the Gragnano area, further guarantees a product of superior quality. For this soup I chose a compact, sturdy shape: Ditali Rigati n.83, excellent for thicker soups like pasta e fagioli.
Pasta paired with pulses — beans, chickpeas or lentils — is the heart of cucina povera, Italy’s resourceful home cooking. Simple pantry ingredients combine into filling, balanced one-pot meals that deliver more than the sum of their parts.
Among the many pasta-and-legume dishes that cross the peninsula, pasta e fagioli — the comforting bean-and-pasta soup — may be my favorite.
Its preparation is modest, its taste rich and layered. Start with a classic battuto — finely minced carrot, celery and onion — often enriched with a few pieces of pancetta or an old ham rind. Add cannellini beans or a local variety such as zolfini, a good short pasta, and a spoonful of tomato paste for colour and depth. Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper.
Bean and pasta soup
Ingredients
- ½ carrot
- ½ celery stalk
- ½ white onion
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 50 g pancetta
- 700 g cooked cannellini beans
- 600 ml bean cooking water
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 200 g short pasta, such as Ditali rigati
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mince the carrot, celery and onion. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, warm the extra virgin olive oil and add the finely chopped pancetta and the minced vegetables.
- Sauté over low heat for about five minutes, until the vegetables have softened.
- Add the cannellini beans with their cooking water and stir in a tablespoon of tomato paste. Season with salt to taste.
- Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, then add the pasta. Cook according to the package instructions, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- When the pasta is cooked, remove the pot from the heat. The beans will naturally thicken the soup, so there’s no need to add cheese. Serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper.
More comforting soups for cold days
- Pasta e patate. A classic of Italian peasant cooking where a few simple ingredients — potatoes and pasta — are transformed into a rich, creamy dish often finished with a bit of Parmesan crust and a pinch of black pepper or red chili for warmth.
- Chickpea and maltagliati soup. A hearty, economical soup where chickpeas simmer slowly with a generous battuto and torn fresh pasta for an unexpected texture.
- Potato, porcini and chestnut soup. Potatoes and mushrooms cook slowly until silky, then pre-cooked chestnuts are crumbled in near the end for extra sweetness and creaminess. Finish with a few reserved chestnuts, chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil.