Einkorn and Bean Minestrone Recipe
Farro and Bean Minestrone is a traditional Italian soup. Although we think of minestrone as a chuncky soup with small pasta pieces, in Italy they often add farro as the starch filler instead of pasta.
In this case, however, we have used Einkorn. A precursor to Farro (or Emmer), Einkorn has a slightly smaller grain, and is much softer than Emmer - so it requires less cooking that Emmer to get it to that "al dente" texture that I love so much.
ingredients 1 medium onion - chopped
3 carrots - chopped
2 celery stalks - chopped
3 cloves garlic - chopped
1/4 cup Sauvignon Blanc or other agro dolce wine vinegar
2 fresh tomatoes - peeled and chopped, or 1 medium can San Marzano tomatoes
3 fresh sage leaves
2 sprigs marjoram
1/2 pound dried white beans - cannellini beans works well - soaked in cold water overnight and drained
1 1/2 cup einkorn
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Parmigiano-Reggiano for serving
directions:
1. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add onion, carrot, celery and garlic and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the wine vinegar and cook until it has cooked in. Add the tomatoes, sage leaves and marjoram and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add the beans and 4 cups fresh water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 50 to 60 minutes.
2. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the einkorn. Lower the heat and simmer for another 30 minutes. Ladle into a soup tureen, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with a little Parmigiano Regginao cheese, and serve.
serves 4