White Bean Soup

The beans in my kitchen often come from a can, because cooking them from scratch means planning ahead at least a few hours if not overnight, and that’s not really my strong suit. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of beans, but have developed a love for them, and cooking them from scratch seems to have as much lore and customary dos and don’ts across cultures as rice does. Anything that inspires nuances of preparation as varied and impassioned as beans is ok in my book. Some would fall on their sword to add salt to the water, others would swear it ruins the dish, and cite pseudo-science to prove it. The internet has proven that there is very little consensus when it comes to right and wrong when cooking beans, and I offer you only a few tried and true dishes in this collection that I guarantee will work and will be successful and delicious – but no real demystification with regards to this magical fruit.

You want to cook this dish long enough for everything to blend and come together nicely, so cooking the beans from scratch is really the only way. You can soak the beans overnight, ideally, which speeds up the cooking time and supposedly reduces how much gas they give you. But it’s not necessary, since you can easily do a quick-soak – and I understand that unless you eat beans very regularly, they’ll always give you gas. I guess that’s just part of the fun.

I go back and forth between kale and chard on this one. Both are great; chard seems to impart more of its own flavor to the finished product. Go with whichever one you prefer or looks better at the market that day.

Ingredients:

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 pound white beans, either great northern or cannellini
• 1 pound sweet Italian or fennel sausage
• 2 medium leeks
• 4 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup dry white wine or vermouth
• 1 parmiggiano reggiano rind
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 small bunch each fresh thyme and parsley leaves, minced
• 1 tsp each fines herbes and herbes de provence (or whatever)
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 pound Swiss chard
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

If you haven’t soaked the beans overnight (or for 8 hours or so), here’s how to do a quick soak: put them in a pot and cover them with 2 inches of water. Bring it to a boil, skim the scum off the top, boil rapidly for 2 minutes, then shut off the heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour. When you’ve finished either the soak or the quick-soak, rinse the beans off and rub them gently between your hands. You don’t want to remove the skins in this process.

When you’re ready to begin, cut away the green part of the leeks. Slice lengthwise from about a half-inch away from the base all the way through to the top, where you’ve just cut away the green parts. Rotate the leek a quarter turn and do the same again – the result is that you’ve just cut each round into quarters, but they’re all still attached at the base. Then, with the base towards the bottom of the sink, hold the leek under running water and rinse extremely thoroughly. Leeks can contain a lot of sand, so you want to get in there and make sure that every nook and cranny is well rinsed. Once that’s finished, slice the leeks thinly, so that you end up with a pile of thinly sliced quarter-circles.

Remove the casing from the sausage, and put a large pot or dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and heat it till it’s almost smoking. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small chunks with your fingers. Cook over high heat, stirring almost constantly and breaking the sausage up with your spoon. When the sausage is fully cooked and has a nice sear on it, add the garlic and the leeks, and a little salt and pepper. Sweat the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until they’re very soft, then deglaze with the wine. Reduce the wine by about 2/3^rds.

Add the beans, stock, herbs, and rind, stirring everything once or twice to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. At any point, you can add water if the soup gets too thick – many people seem to add a cup of water at the beginning anyway, I only do if I feel like it’s necessary. Stock is like water with umami, so normally my feeling is why not stock? But you may need to thin it out a bit to properly cook the beans – you be the judge as it simmers.

It should simmer for about 50 minutes, but taste frequently so you can catch the beans when they’re just tender. Meanwhile, trim the stems away from the chard and coarsely chop the leaves. (You’ll want to wash this very well also.)

When the beans have finished, remove the sprig of rosemary and add the chard. Stir well and cook for another five minutes, then serve and enjoy. I like to serve this with crusty toasted bread.