Every Saturday we publish the recipe of our former colleague Ivan Fischer on our website www.primorski.eu. This is not a novelty, but an electronic reprint of the culinary corner published by Primorski dnevnik from late spring 2007 to autumn 2011. Both the originality of the recipes and the thoughts that accompany their publication fully retain their relevance and message, and the online publication at the same time allows their rapid transfer to the electronic or paper archive of home cooking.
Happy reading!
Tuscan Rice Soup
While in Trieste and Kas and in the surrounding area in the first half of March the Bora was raging, as we cannot remember, and all of Trieste and the hinterland was white with snow, hopefully the last one this year, it was announced Tuscany, where that Otherwise the weather was sour and cold, but there was no wind and no snow, except for a few hours in the Apennines. For me, Tuscany is one of the most beautiful countries in Italy, every tourist will find something interesting in it. Those interested in culture and art can only choose between the various Tuscan cities from Florence to Siena and Lucca, but nature lovers will also get their money’s worth, gourmets and lovers of fine wines will get their money’s worth. I wouldn’t be talking about wine here, so I’ll focus, you guessed it, on the cooking. Tuscan cuisine is very tasty, but differs from neighboring Emilia in that it is slightly less fatty and more edible. Tuscany needs more olive oil and less butter than Emilia, but Tuscan dishes are a real treat.
There are many more vegetables in it, the famous Tuscan vegetable soup “Ribollita” (reheated twice) is known all over the world and is one of my favorite dishes, but I won’t reveal a recipe because we hardly find any of the essential ingredients of this soup is the so-called “cavolo nero”, black cabbage, which gives the dishes a very special taste. We don’t even have Tuscan bread that’s completely salt-free, which is also essential for this soup. That’s why I offer you a recipe for a Tuscan soup with piro, beans and chickpeas, also typical of these places.
We need:
250 grams of puree
150g brown beans
150 grams of white beans
100 grams of chickpeas
30 grams of bacon
3 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tablespoons tomato concentrate
6 slices of bread (since we can’t get Tuscan here, we’ll have to settle for Apulian)
olive oil
Sol
pepper
Soak both types of beans and chickpeas in three separate bowls overnight. Wash the puree and let it soak for about 8 hours, then drain and wash well. Do the same with beans and chickpeas. Put the beans and chickpeas in a large pot and pour in 3.5 liters of water, bring to the boil and simmer over low heat for about 2 hours.
Only salt at the end. When the legumes are done, drain the water, reserving a good liter. Finely chop the bacon and rosemary and toss in the olive oil with the crushed garlic. Let it fry for a few minutes, then add the tomato concentrate dissolved in a cup of warm water. Now we can add the water in which the legumes were cooked and in which we will pour the piro, which we will have to cook over low heat for an hour and a half. If necessary, we only salt this at the end. When the puree is done, add the beans and chickpeas and cook for 10-15 minutes. Place slices of bread on the bottom of the soup bowl and pour the soup on top. Everyone adds a little olive oil and freshly ground black pepper to the soup.
Enjoy your meal!
Ivan Fisher
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