Recipe: Warm up a chilly day with Tuscan Bean and Farro Soup

This slow-cooking, meal-in-a-bowl seems the cleanable crockery to navigator connected a acold upwind weekend. The soup’s spirit and texture benefits greatly with the summation of farro (sometimes labeled emmer wheat oregon spelt), the past atom that is oh-so-popular successful Italy. The sensation is an appealing operation of barley and hazelnuts.

Here, farro makes a chewy playmate with long-cooked cabbage, pinto beans, and butternut squash. I cognize I often pass against overcooking cabbage, but this irresistible crockery is an exception. The cabbage astir melts into the broth, giving it a subtle saccharine edge.

A slab of ail toast would marque a invited accompaniment.

Tuscan Bean and Farro Soup with Cabbage and Winter Squash

Yield: 6 servings

1/2 lb (1 1/4 cups) dried pinto beans, picked over, rinsed

1/2 cupful farro, spot cook’s notes

10 cups water, divided use

Salt

1 tablespoonful extra-virgin olive oil

1 mean onion, chopped

1 mean carrot, chopped

1 tiny celery stalk with leaves, chopped

2 tablespoonful chopped caller sage

3 ample ail cloves, minced

1 lb greenish cabbage, cored, shredded

1 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, diced (about 2 cups)

Freshly crushed achromatic capsicum to taste

Garnish: grated Parmesan cheese

Sofrito:

1 tablespoonful extra-virgin olive oil

3 ample cloves garlic, minced

Generous 1/2 spoon dried rosemary, crumbled oregon caller minced

1 (14-ounce) tin diced tomatoes with juice

Cook’s notes: Farro, emmer full wheat, is disposable astatine Italian markets. Or usage spelt, a full wheat that is sold astatine wellness nutrient stores and immoderate supermarkets successful their earthy foods section.

1. Place beans successful bowl; screen by 2 inches with acold h2o and soak overnight, oregon 6 hours. Drain.

2. Combine farro and 3 cups h2o successful mean saucepan; bring to boil. Reduce vigor and mildly boil until tender (cooking times alteration – the farro sold astatine Trader Joe’s cooks successful 10 minutes – consult directions of package). Drain successful colander, play with a small salt, and acceptable aside.

3. Meanwhile, vigor 1 tablespoonful extra-virgin olive lipid successful large, dense crockery cookware oregon Dutch oven implicit mean heat; adhd bulb and navigator until bulb softens, astir 3 minutes. Add carrot, celery, and sage; cook, stirring, until vegetables are tender, astir 8 to 10 minutes. Add ail and cook, stirring, until fragrant, astir 1 minute. Add cabbage and 1/2 spoon salt; cook, stirring often until cabbage successful limp, astir 10 minutes. Add beans, squash and 8 cups h2o (or capable h2o to screen ingredients by 2 inches). Bring to boil connected precocious heat; trim vigor and simmer 1 hour.

4. Add brackish to taste. If beans are not tender, simmer mildly until beans are tender, astir 10 minutes. Ladle retired 2 cups of beans and vegetables with a tiny magnitude of broth; puree successful blender successful tiny batches oregon nutrient processor. Return pureed substance to pot.

4. Meanwhile hole sofrito: While crockery is simmering, vigor 1 tablespoonful olive lipid successful mean nonstick skillet implicit mean heat. Add ail and rosemary; navigator 30 seconds and disturbance successful tomatoes. Add brackish to sensation and cook, stirring often, until tomatoes person cooked down and sofrito is heavy and delicious and opening to instrumentality to the pan, 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Stir sofrito into the soup. Stir successful the cooked farro. Taste and set brackish and adhd tons of freshly crushed achromatic pepper. Serve topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

Have a cooking question? Contact Cathy Thomas astatine cathythomascooks@gmail.com