How Italians Make Creamy Healthy Pasta with Cranberry (Borlotti) Beans | Patch to Plate

How Italians Make Creamy Healthy Pasta with Borlotti Beans | Patch to Plate

This creamy pasta with fresh Borlotti beans is my version of pasta e fagioli, one of those simple Italian dishes where vegetables, beans and a little pasta become a complete and comforting meal. There is no cream needed here. I blend some of the cooked Borlotti beans with their broth, which gives the pasta its lovely natural creaminess while keeping the beans themselves at the heart of the dish.

We begin in the garden with Julie picking the fresh Borlotti beans she grew herself, then I take them into the kitchen and cook them slowly with onion, carrot, celery, tomatoes, chilli and bay leaf. Fresh Borlotti beans are a real treat for me. They remind me of Sicily, where my grandparents and uncles grew beans and we ate them through the summer.

Julie and I originally recorded and published this video two years ago, in the earlier days of TortellinoTime. Since then, many more people have joined us and this little video has become buried among more than 600 others. I have always liked this recipe and the recording, so I have gone back to it, given it a fresh edit and decided to put it back on the table for those who may never have seen it.

I am using fresh Borlotti beans because they are in season, but please do not feel you cannot make this without them. Dried Borlotti beans, soaked and cooked until tender, work beautifully, and cooked Borlotti beans from a tin are also an easy alternative. Just adapt the cooking time accordingly.

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INGREDIENTS
400 g / 14 oz fresh Borlotti beans, shelled
300 g / 10½ oz plum tomatoes, halved
200 g / 7 oz ditaloni or other small pasta
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 medium red onions, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped, plus a small piece of celery with leaves if available
1 small chilli pepper
2 tsp tomato purée
1 bay leaf
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper
Hot vegetable stock and water, as needed

Optional for serving:
Parmesan cheese
Extra virgin olive oil

Optional variation:
Italian sausage or bacon
Fresh rosemary

METHOD
Come into the kitchen with me. I start with a good amount of olive oil in my cast iron pot, then in go the onions. Once they are coated in the oil, I add the chilli, including the seeds because mine is only medium in heat.

I bring the heat down to medium and add the bay leaf and chopped celery with a little salt. After a couple of minutes the carrots can join them. Then I squeeze in about two teaspoons of tomato purée. It is not much, but it gives us a little sweetness and colour before the fresh tomatoes go in. Season with a little more salt and black pepper and let everything cook together.

Now for our fresh Borlotti beans. Mix them through the vegetables and give them a couple of minutes to become hot. Fresh beans are different from dried beans, so I add hot stock and water rather than starting them in cold water. Add enough liquid to sit roughly 1–2 cm / ½–¾ inch above the vegetables and beans.

If you have a little celery top with its leaves, put that in too. Bring everything back to the boil, cover and reduce to a gentle simmer. Mine took 1 hour and 5 minutes until beautifully tender, but check yours as they cook.

When the beans are ready, cook 200 g / 7 oz of small pasta in salted water. Remember to remove the bay leaf from the beans.

Now comes the little trick that makes this so creamy without adding cream. Take about three ladles of beans and one ladle of their lovely broth and blend until smooth and thick.

Drain the pasta and mix it with the blended beans. Spoon over some of the whole Borlotti beans, vegetables and broth until you have the consistency you like.

I finish mine very simply with a little raw extra virgin olive oil and a small shower of Parmesan.

If you prefer some meat, sausage or bacon works very well. Cook it before adding the tomatoes, and I would add a little rosemary too. Today, though, I am keeping mine vegetarian and letting those beautiful fresh beans do the talking.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Picking Fresh Borlotti Beans with Julie
01:26 Cooking the Fresh Borlotti Beans
05:59 Cooking the Pasta
06:20 Making It Naturally Creamy
08:27 Tasting the Pasta e Fagioli

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