Gluten Free Pasta e Fagioli Recipe
The Duomo all lit up on a Sunday night.Sofia Minciotti's Gluten-Free Pasta e Fagioli
Italy outside the Freccia's windows
Once I left the Viking Star in
Venice, I travelled across Northern Italy by bullet train to Milano, or so I
hoped. Unfortunately, a World War II
bomb was discovered at Brescia, which is right on the route. The train was
re-routed and instead of the 2 ½ hours it was meant to take, it was well past
noon when I arrived.
There to greet me
at Milan’s magnificent train station was Edoardo, my Italian ‘brother’ who had
driven up from Assisi, a four hour trip just to have lunch with me at his
sister Sofia’s home in Milano.
Sofia, Edoardo and Elena MinciottiWhat
a joy it was to come together with this wonderful family—virtually all of them. Edoardo brought his beautiful
daughter Elena, who is studying at the University of Perugia. Laura and her husband Francesco and son
Federico came from across town. Sofia and Mario, her husband, had a marvelous
lunch for the family and I was so thrilled to be with this vibrant,
boisterous crew!
Laura La Ferla and her mother Sofia Minciotti The
Minciotti LaFerlas occupy the top floor of a wonderful apartment building on
Via Eustachi which is at the heart of an area of Art Deco-inspired
buildings. The apartment is a repository
of their lives. Sofia, a teacher, has
filled her home with books, an entire collection of which were written by
Mario, a journalist who has authored over a dozen of them. Mario’s passion is for paintings and horses
of which he has amassed a huge collection filling their
Salone. Francesco Amatruda and Mario La FerlaTowards
evening, Sofia insisted on taking me on a tour of the center of Milan, which is
all of two subway stops away. I have
been so blessed with weather. Ever since we sailed from Barcelona, there has
been not one drop of rain. In Italy
it’s called L’Estate di San Martino which is Indian summer Italian style. The feast of St Martin of Tours is celebrated
in Italy on November 11th. As
Martino was travelling home from Rome
to France, in the midst of a storm, he met a beggar who was crippled from the
cold. He The La Ferla Minciotti Salone
offered the man half of his
cloak. After a few minutes, the rain stopped, the wind calmed down and sun came
out heating the air. In his honor,
three days of perfect temperatures recur every year to commemorate his
generosity. All I can add is that this
year the celebration was much appreciated by this traveller.
Sofia
and I first walked Via Monte Napoleone which is Milan’s
ultra luxe shopping
street. It’s hard to imagine more
beautiful shops in a more beautiful setting.
But I had yet to see the even more magnificent Galleria. Truly one of
the most impressive structures I have ever seen, it now makes sense that all those malls across America call themselves "Galleria".
Bramante's Chiesa di Santa Maria
The
next few days were magical to me. I
loved Milan which seemed to have smaller crowds and fewer tourists than
anywhere on my trip. I loved the
incredible style that the Milanese have in spades. Even the airport bus drivers
wear their scarves with panache. In
fact, everyone seems to make an effort at fashion. I loved
Federico, Master of the Trampolinathe market right outside Sofia and
Mario’s door. I loved the scale of the
city, so easy to navigate. But most of all, I loved being with the family: I
loved going to 9 year old Federico’s school and accompanying his grandfather in
taking him to and from his English classes.
I loved shopping with Sofia and eating at their table. I loved their taking me to the newest and
aptly named Porto Nuovo, as modern as any recent development here in New York
and perhaps even more so. I loved
speaking Italian the entire time. I
loved the entire stay and I have to say, it was the highlight of the whole
wonderful trip.
Art Deco in Milano.
On my last night there, Sofia
insisted on cooking dinner. Sofia is a true celiac
sufferer so
dinner out presents quite a challenge. After our Chinese experience (see
Gung Bao Chicken), I was delighted with the invitation to dine at home. Sofia made a point of explaining that
everything she cooks is by feel. There
are no real measurements to her dishes.
Instead she counts of intuition and years of practice.
While I watched, I took as many
notes as I could. So the recipe I am giving
you allows you as much leeway as you like.
Pasta e Fagioli is generally a soupy mixture of beans with a small
amount of pasta stirred in at the end.
In Sofia’s recipe she used gluten free pasta sparingly. You can up the amount if you’d like. The other words of wisdom that Sofia
proferred were to use dried beans and not the canned variety as she feels
strongly that the metallic taste of the cans comes through. She actually uses her pressure cooker to cook
beans and cut down on cooking time. I’ve given instructions for cooking the
beans stovetop. In the event that you are pressed for time, in a pinch she
recommends beans in a jar if you can find such a thing. She also makes batches of the dish because it
re-heats brilliantly and gathers flavor along the way. Here is the recipe:
Sofia Minciotti’s Pasta e Fagioli
Serves 4-6. Active Time (excluding
soaking the beans overnight) 45 minutes. Total 1 hour 45 minutes.
- 2 cups dried cranberry beans,
- soaked overnight and drained.
- 6 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- A couple of fresh Sage leaves
- A sprig of Rosemary
- ¼ tsp. crushed red chili flakes
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground
- Pepper
- 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
- ¼ cup finely chopped Italian
- parsley
1. In a 4 qt. saucepan, combine the
beans with 6 cups of water and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook the beans until tender,
about 1 hour. Remove about 1 cup of beans and their liquid. Reserve a second cup of their cooking liquid. Drain the beans.
2. Heat the olive oil, add the sage, garlic and rosemary and about five minutes. Stir in the chili flakes. Season with
salt and pepper. Gently stir in the beans and their
cooking liquid until heated through, about 2 minutes.
3. Using an immersion mixer, pulse the reserved cup of beans and their liquid until they combine to make a creamy sauce. Add the sauce to the bean mixture.
4. Meanwhile, in a pan of boiling
salted water, cook the paste until al
dente, about 10 minutes. Drain the pasta and reserve 1/2 cup of pasta
water. Stir the pasta and ¼ cup of the water into the beans and cook until
warmed through about two minutes. (Add
the remaining pasta water if need to make a creamier sauce.)
5. Stir in the
pecorino, parsley and rosemary and serve with more pecorino on the side.
Milano Moderno at Porto Nuovo But
it was time to go home. And so, at a very early hour, I awoke and tried to
sneak out of the house, only be stymied by its ancient doors. I had to wake Sofia and we said a fond
farewell. I went off to Malpensa.
Arriving there, I was switched over to Emirates, which runs a non-stop flight
to JFK. Since I’d spoken not one word of
English in four days, when I boarded the flight, I continued to speak
Italian. A young attractive flight
attendant talked to me in English, but I blithely continued speaking
Italian. “I’m sorry Sir, I will have to
bring the Italian speaking flight attendant because I am Portuguese and I do
not speak Italian”. I guess I simply
wanted my stay in Italy to last until the last possible moment.
As
an addenda, I simply cannot say enough good things about Emirates. Even in coach, they took my coat. When was
the last time that happened? And Air France, if you want to see how to make
your atrocious 380 Airbus work, fly Emirates.