Cannellini Bean

Swiss chard is a beloved kitchen-garden vegetable in Italian cuisine. Combined with white beans and tomatoes, this stick-to-your-ribs dish will satisfy the heartiest of appetites.

With a few choice ingredients and just minutes, you’ve got a substantial soup for a summer day. Choose a crisp, flavorful cucumber with pale green (rather than watery white) flesh for optimal flavor. If the cucumber is organic and unwaxed, leave the peel on for extra fiber and flavor. If you have more time, cover and refrigerate the soup for an hour or more before serving.

Oh, how I adore this soup, which I discovered at The Bakery in New Paltz, New York. A simple Italian classic, this soup has a number of variations, but I find there’s no need to dress up the basic formula. Escarole is a sturdy green that’s too tough for many salads, but it cooks quickly and, combined with cannellini beans, gives an almost buttery scent and flavor to the soup.

Lots of oozy cheese and garlic make these vegetarian heros hearty enough to satisfy the most ardent carnivore.

This silky, sophisticated soup is proof that beans can be so much more than humble peasant food. Serve it as a warming first course or main dish. You can use cannellini beans or white navy beans in this soup, but given the choice, I prefer the cannellinis. They’re larger and have comparatively less skin, so they produce a creamier soup.

Quickly wilted arugula, canned beans, and toasted walnuts add heft to this vegetarian main course. Try spinach in place of arugula and pine nuts instead of walnuts.

This dip is a favorite among Everyday Food editors. Double the recipe to make extra, as it will keep, covered and refrigerated, up to three days. Navy beans can be used in place of cannellini.

FLAVOR BOOSTER The first step in this recipe is about building flavors, so don’t try to rush it. Similarly, don’t skimp on the handful of chopped parsley added at the end—more than just a garnish, the herb helps brighten and define the other ingredients.

GOOD TO KNOW Fiber-rich beans and leafy greens offset the richness of sausages in this Italian-inspired dinner. Broiling makes quick work of cooking the sausages. For an even lighter preparation, substitute chicken or turkey sausages for the pork.

I make this soup year-round with fresh shell beans in the summer and fall, and with dried beans in the winter. The other vegetables in the soup vary with the season. It can be put together quickly if the beans are already cooked.

Fresh shell beans are superb. A bowl of plump shell beans flavored with only olive oil, black pepper, and salt, with a glass of wine, and some crusty bread—that’s food for the gods, as David says. All sorts of varieties—cranberry, cannellini, flageolet, lima, and butter beans, crowder peas and black-eyed peas—are harvested in the summer and fall, and are becoming more common in farmers’ markets. Fresh beans will cook in 30 to 45 minutes.

Cooking dried beans is as basic as it gets: put the beans in a pot, cover with water, and simmer until tender. What varies around the globe is the variety of bean and how they are seasoned. There are many heirloom varieties to choose from and they are all delicious flavored with a mirepoix (a mixture of diced or chopped onions, carrot, and celery) and a few herbs, and if you like, a bit of cured meat. Cook beans that you intend to add to a soup or some other dish with whole, not chopped, vegetables and remove them at the end.

A mixture of fresh green beans (haricots verts, yellow wax beans, romano beans, or Blue Lake beans) makes this dish both beautiful and tasty. Each variety cooks in a different amount of time, so cook them separately. The same water can be used. Cook yellow wax beans first, to preserve their color. A variety of shell beans can be used as well, but once again, be sure to cook different beans separately.

Minestrone means “big soup” in Italian: a big soup of many vegetables. In order for them all to be cooked through at the same time, they’re added in stages. First a tasty soffritto (a base of aromatic vegetables) is made, long-cooking vegetables are added and moistened with water or broth, and the soup is brought to a boil, at which point the more tender vegetables are added. Dried beans and pasta are cooked separately and added at the end. The recipe below is for a classic summertime minestrone, followed by seasonal variations. The soffritto can be made of onions only but often includes carrots and celery. Fennel can be substituted for the celery when a more delicate flavor is wanted. Garlic is always added at the end of the cooking to ensure that it does not burn. Be sure to use a heavy-bottomed pot and lots of olive oil. For a more hearty soup, let the soffritto cook to a golden hue; for a less robust version, don’t let the vegetables color at all. Either way, the vegetables should be cooked through to give the soup the full benefit of their flavors; this will take 10 minutes or more. They’re done when they look and taste good enough to eat on their own. The vegetables added after the soffritto—such as squash and green beans—are cut into pieces small enough to ensure that each spoonful of soup will contain a mixture. They’re added sequentially, according to the length of time they take to cook through without getting mushy. Greens need to be cut into bite-size pieces, too; if they’re cut in strips they can hang down and dribble hot soup on your chin or your clothes. Winter greens such as kale or chard take longer to cook and should go in with the first group of vegetables. Tender greens such as spinach will cook in just a few minutes and should be added towards the end of cooking. Salt the soup as it cooks; this will intensify and improve the flavor as a last-minute salting cannot. Dried beans—and pasta, if you’re using it—should be cooked separately before being added to the soup. Save the bean cooking liquid; it adds flavor and body to the soup. The cooked beans should be added during the last 10 minutes so they have a chance to absorb flavor, but not overcook. The pasta should be added at the very end so it doesn’t overcook and get bloated and flabby. To preserve its fresh flavor, the garnish of olive oil and cheese should be added to the bowls of soup, not to the pot. I always pass a bowl of grated cheese and a bottle of olive oil at the table.

A classic example of the type of salads you’ll find in Italy, this is easy to throw together and more impressive than the usual mixed green salad. Depending on the region, the type of cheese may differ. I love to nibble on chunks of Pecorino as I make it.

Spezzatino is an Italian vegetable stew that has meat in it. This one boasts small bites of chicken and a sprinkle of crunchy pancetta. I love artichokes, so I add them, along with the beans, to make this soup a meal.

Rome is famous for its artichokes, and in the Jewish district you can buy amazing fried whole artichokes on street corners. Back home, I use frozen artichokes for ease and I love combining them with beans in a creamy dip for bruschetta, a favorite snack throughout Italy. The crispy, salty prosciutto highlights the subtle flavor of the artichokes and adds crunch.

This is rustic and simple, and deeply satisfying. Pureed beans can get a bit crusty when exposed to air, so if you make these ahead of time, drizzle a bit of a nice fruity olive oil over each crostini to keep it fresh and make it glisten. If you want a lighter version, you can certainly serve this on cucumber rounds, but I love the way the smoky flavor of the eggplant and the grilled bread work together.

Like most bean dishes this puree is best if you use freshly cooked dried beans, but it is still good with canned beans. One-quarter pound of dried beans will yield about one cup, the amount needed for this recipe, although you can double the quantities if you like. If you use dried beans, cook them in unsalted water to cover (presoaking is unnecessary), with a couple of bay leaves, until very tender. If you use canned beans, you’ll need almost a full fifteen-ounce can to get one cup (there’s a lot of water in those cans).