“Maltagliati” with beans

Ingredients for 6 people

• 300 g white flour
• 3 eggs
• ½ an onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 sprig of rosemary, preferably dry
• ½ glass of extra-virgin olive oil
• 300 g dry beans or 800 g fresh beans
• Salt and pepper to taste

 

Knead the flour and eggs in the usual way to make fresh pasta dough. Work the pasta into ribbons that are about 2 mm thick and then cut it into irregular pieces (after all, maltagliati is Italian for “badly cut”). Allow the pasta shapes to rest for about 2 hours under a dry cloth. Pour the olive oil into a saucepan and prepare a mixture of chopped onion, garlic, carrot and celery. When it is ready, add two litres of salted water and the beans (if using dry beans, they should have been soaked in water from the previous evening). Keep the fire fairly low and, if you like, add a pinch of chopped rosemary and more hot water if necessary. Check seasoning and when it all comes to the boil add the fresh pasta. This piping hot dish, served with a few drops of olive oil and a light sprinkling of black pepper, is an excellent cure-all especially during the long, hard winter months.