Recipes: Cannellini Bean and Kale Soup

This is a quick and easy soup that makes you feel good. After you crush this soup, you'll have accomplished making something you probably haven't done before, making a new thing. That's huge. This soup is an easy win. Everyone's life needs more wins and this soup is your big W this day! Keep winning, keep soupin'.

Yield: Serves 4, Time: 1 hour 15 minutes prep

Ingredients

  • 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
  • 6 shallots, sliced
  • 6 garlic cloves, smashed
  • 1 fennel bulb, diced
  • 2 rosemary sprigs
  • 2 tablespoons preserved Calabrian chili peppers, chopped
  • 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 cup Italian white wine
  • 6 cups vegetable stock
  • 2 cups dried cannellini beans, soaked for 6 hours and drained
  • Two 2-inch pieces Pecorino rind
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 large bunch Tuscan black kale, chopped into 1-inch-wide pieces
  • 1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 bunch curly parsley, chopped

Directions

In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, add the olive oil, shallots, garlic, fennel, rosemary and 1 tablespoon of the Calabrian chili peppers.

Throw in the tomato paste and cook it down until it starts to caramelize. Add the wine, vegetable stock, and cannellini beans. Turn it down nice and low and cook covered for about 1 hour. Skim the scum while the soup cooks down.

Take the lid off and reduce it to a nice hearty soup, about 15 minutes.

The beans will have fluffed up. Take the rinds of Pecorino and throw them in. That's nice.

Adjust the seasonings to your taste, and when it tastes real good, throw in the kale and cook it down for 10 minutes. Stir that up.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Top each bowl with the grated Pecorino, a drizzle of olive oil, and lemon juice. Throw in the parsley. It should look like mulch.

If you are a spicy boy or girl add some more of that preserved Calabrian chili pepper.

Excerpted from Soups, Salads, Sandwiches.