Mon, 8 January 2024
INGREDIENTS
Serves 6
For the stew:
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little more to serve
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1 fennel bulb
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 red chilli (or use ½ teaspoon of chilli flakes)
• 2 400g tins of borlotti beans with their liquid (you could also use cannellini or a mix)*
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 600ml vegetable or chicken stock (it’s fine to use a stock cube)
• 150g kale (or use other leafy greens such as chard or savoy cabbage)
• 100g stale bread
• Salt and Pepper
• 50g Parmesan
For the green pesto
• 50g soft green herbs and/or peppery salad leaves (such as wild garlic, parsley, coriander, mustard leaves, rocket, watercress, sorrel)
• 30g walnuts
• 50ml olive oil
• ¼ lemon, juice only
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Pinch of sugar
*Almost any beans would work here and you could absolutely used dried beans that you soaked and cooked in advance. If you are using dried beans you will need about 300g before cooking, as dried beans approximately double in weight once cooked.
METHOD
1. Finely dice the onion, carrot and fennel. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan or casserole dish and once hot (but not smoking) add the chopped vegetables. Season with one teaspoon of salt. Turn the heat down to low, put the lid on and cook for as long as you can, at least 30 minutes but if I have time I will cook mine for 90 minutes. The longer you cook this base
(or sofrito as the Italians call it) the more sweetness and melding of flavours in the final dish. Stir occasionally, everything should be getting soft but not brown.
2. Meanwhile, finely chop your garlic and red chilli. About ten minutes before you plan to finish cooking your vegetables add the chilli and garlic to the pan. Stir well and continue to cook. Ten minutes later add the tinned or jarred beans with the liquid, tinned tomatoes, bay leaf and the stock. Add a good grind of black pepper and a little more salt if needed. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes.
3. To make the green pesto but the herbs or salad leaves into a food processor with the walnuts. Turn on the food processor to chop up the greens and nuts. With the food processor still running drizzle the olive oil in through the funnel in the top, the mixture should be blitzed into a thick green paste. Stop the food processor to add the lemon juice, salt and sugar and to scrape down the sides. Blitz again and then taste, adjust more salt, sugar or lemon juice if you need it
4. Prep the kale by removing any woody stems and discarding and then slicing into strips about 1cm wide. Break or cut the bread into small pieces a couple of centimetres big.
5. After the soup has been cooking with the beans and stock for 30 minutes add in the borage, kale and stale bread and cook gently for another 10 minutes or so, until the greens are tender.
6. Serve garnished with the green pesto and grated parmesan.
