Winter cooking does not have to be hearty and heavy. Pasta e fagioli can be robust enough to take the edge off a cold day while remaining silky, delicate and elegant. The soup rewards patience with its soffritto: a long, slow cook builds flavor. Persimmons, also called kaki fruit, are among the winter kitchen’s less heralded assets, adding color and honeyed sweetness to almost anything, especially bitter winter leaves. They deserve more use in cooking.
Pasta e fagioli
Prep 20 min Cook 1 hr 15 min Serves 6
Do not add the pasta until just before serving. It will continue to cook and expand as the bowls sit at the table.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 50g celery heart, finely chopped
- 60g carrot, finely chopped
- 80g red onion, peeled and finely chopped (net weight)
- 2 dried red chillies, crumbled
- Salt and black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary, needles picked and finely chopped
- 4 canned plum tomatoes, drained and kept whole
- 540g cooked cannellini beans, or other cooked white beans, plus their liquor
- 170g dried ditalini pasta
- Grated parmesan, to finish
Method
Warm about three tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion, chilli and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring often, for at least 30 minutes, until the soffritto is extremely soft and sweet; add more oil if it looks dry.
Add the garlic and rosemary to the soffritto pot. A well of oil should have pooled in the center by this point; if it has not, add extra oil to create one. Fry for a minute or so, until the garlic turns tan without browning.
Stir in the tomatoes, crushing them as you add them, and cook for about 10 minutes, until they tint everything red. Drain the beans, reserving their liquor, and stir them into the pot to coat.
Raise the heat to medium-high and add enough of the reserved bean liquor to cover the pot’s contents by about an inch. If there is not enough liquor, top up with water or stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes, until the flavors meld.
Take the pot off the heat. Using a slotted spoon, transfer a quarter of the beans to a food processor; it is fine if some soffritto clings to them. Blitz until completely smooth, then stir the puree back into the pot. Return the soup to a gentle simmer and cook for another five minutes or so. Adjust the salt as needed and keep the soup at a bare simmer over low heat.
Just before serving, bring a medium pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the ditalini and cook it only halfway, checking the packet instructions for timing. Using a slotted spoon or spider, transfer the half-cooked pasta to the just-simmering soup, keeping the pot of pasta water at hand.
Turn up the heat and bring the soup to an active boil, then finish cooking the pasta in the soup for three to five minutes, until it is al dente. If the soup looks dense, add a ladle or two of the pasta water to loosen it; the mixture should be creamy and stretchy, not thick or gluey.
Take the soup off the heat. Season it with a generous dusting of grated parmesan, black pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil, and serve immediately.
Radicchio with persimmon, hazelnuts and gorgonzola
Prep 10 min Cook 30 min Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 4 ripe persimmons
- ½ tsp thyme leaves, chopped
- Salt and black pepper
- Good-quality olive oil
- 35g shelled hazelnuts
- 2 heads radicchio and/or treviso, ideally one of each
- Juice of ½ lemon, or to taste
- 30g gorgonzola, crumbled
Method
Heat the oven to 230C (210C convection)/450F/gas 8. Tear each persimmon into eight chunky wedges, or slice them if you prefer. Put them in a bowl with the thyme, a pinch of salt, some black pepper and a tablespoon or two of olive oil, and toss to coat.
Spread the persimmon wedges evenly over a baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes, until softened and lightly caramelized. Take them out of the oven and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, spread the hazelnuts over a small baking sheet and roast them alongside the persimmons for about 10 minutes, until aromatic and richly golden brown. Remove and leave until cool enough to handle, then crush into chunky, uneven pieces with a mortar and pestle or a rolling pin. Leave the nuts to cool completely.
Remove and discard the tough outer leaves from the radicchio, then tear the remaining leaves into a large salad bowl; rip up any particularly large pieces to make them easier to eat. If using treviso, cut off the top half, then, working from the cut end down, thinly slice the rest into 1¼cm-thick rounds.
Season the leaves with a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon and one or two tablespoons of olive oil. Toss and taste, adding more salt, lemon juice and/or oil until the salad is glossy and tastes nicely sharp.
Add the hazelnuts, roasted persimmon wedges and gorgonzola. Toss again and season with more salt if needed. Mound the salad generously on a platter and serve.
Jess Shadbolt is chef and co-owner of King and Dean’s, two restaurants in New York. Her book The King Cookbook, written with Annie Shi and Clare de Boer, is published by Flatiron Books.