Marcella Hazan's 5-Ingredient Bean Soup Is Too Easy Not To Make

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Marcella Hazan is the author of what is arguably the greatest Italian cookbook ever written: "Essentials Of Classic Italian Cooking." Her hallmark was simplicity. She taught us that some recipes only need a little garlic and that always-in-season canned tomatoes are perfectly fine for making marinara sauce. (And no, they don't need to be San Marzanos, since her iconic recipe makes no such specification). 

Hazan's cannellini bean soup, too, achieves perfection with minimal ingredients: cooked beans (canned ones are fine), olive oil, garlic, water or broth, and fresh parsley, along with salt and pepper for seasoning and, optionally, grilled bread as a garnish. Making Hazan's soup isn't at all labor-intensive, and it doesn't take too much time, unless you're cooking the beans from scratch. 

All you do is saute chopped garlic in a generous amount of oil (her recipe calls for half a cup), then simmer the beans in the oil for a few minutes. At this point, you'll remove and puree a portion of the beans with the liquid, then add them back to the pot. You could also use an immersion blender if you want to liquefy all of the beans for a smoother soup. After a few more minutes of simmering, you stir in some fresh parsley. That's your five-ingredient soup right there, though you can also ladle it right over a slice of grille bread for an even more delicious bowl.

According to Giuliano Hazan, his mother, Marcella, was very fond of cannellini beans. Her recipes bear this out, like her cannellini bean and tuna salad and several other soup recipes that also include this ingredient. One of Hazan's cannellini bean soups is made with barley and broccoli, another with savoy cabbage, and there's also a version of the classic bean and noodle soup called pasta e fagioli. 

When in Italy, Hazan would seek out a specific variety known as Sorana beans, a product of Tuscany that dates back 500 years to the days of the Medicis. These beans are known for having very thin skins and an exceptionally creamy consistency. In her later years, Hazan became friends with an American bean grower named Steve Sando, and he was able to source some of the seeds for these heirloom beans to grow on his California farm. His initial crop was successful, but unfortunately she died before the first beans were fully dried. As a tribute, Sando obtained permission from Hazan's husband, Victor, to name the beans in her honor, and to this day, Sando's farm, Rancho Gordo, is selling Marcella beans by the bagful. They may be a little pricier than the standard cannellinis you can buy in the grocery store, but using them to make Hazan's cannellini bean soup is a fitting tribute to la regina della cucina Italiana.