Tuscan Bean Soup

Zuppa di fagioli alla Toscana is a delicious, creamy soup to nourish and keep you warm in winter. In the autumn, if you are fortunate enough to find the new season's beans from the Mediterranean, they are the first choice, but any good-quality cannellini beans will make an excellent soup.

This recipe comes from Giovanna, a highly creative and generous cook and ex-student of ours who invited us out to Tuscany, where we sampled her parents' memorable bottled tomatoes, olive oil, red and white wine, vin santo and limoncello. Each wine bottle was opened with anticipation and everyone tasted a bit to assess its salient merits - it made the uniformity of commercial wine suddenly seem rather boring.

The Carabinieri kept a friendly eye on the locals' ventures into distilling but, as long as they were given some to sample, no one bothered further.

SERVES 4

250g dried cannellini beans

900ml water

4 sage leaves

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 sprig of rosemary

1 tomato, chopped

Salt and pepper

Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Drain and rinse. Cover the beans with the fresh water, add the sage leaves and 1 tablespoon olive oil and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer until tender, 45 minutes to 1½ hours, depending on the freshness of the beans.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a saucepan and gently fry the garlic until golden with the sprig of rosemary, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato and fry until cooked, about 5 minutes.

Transfer half the beans to a medium-sized bowl with some of the bean stock. Blend with a hand-held blender, then return to the pan. Heat the soup, add the tomato. Season. Serve sprinkled with the remaining oil.

VARIATIONS

• Use haricot beans if you cannot find cannellini.

• Add 200g thinly shredded spinach to the soup when you put in the bean purée and simmer until the spinach has wilted.