Marcella Hazan’s 15-Minute Soup Is My Weeknight Lifesaver

Marcella Hazan’s 15-Minute Soup Is My Weeknight Lifesaver

Simply Recipes / Photo Illustration by Wanda Abraham / Myo Quinn

Simply Recipes Marcella Hazen LEAD 01 4 b0d19d55e46f41c89c625139149aafb6

Why Make This

  • Marcella Hazan’s white bean soup is prepared in about quarter-hour and makes use of simply 5 elements.
  • It highlights beans’ pure taste—no heavy seasoning, simply garlic, oil, and parsley.
  • The recipe creates clean and chunky textures by pulsing half the beans.

Back once I was a child recipe developer working on the Food52 take a look at kitchen, I used to be tasked with making Marcella Hazan’s White Bean Soup with Garlic and Parsley, a recipe from her cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cookingfor a photograph shoot. Armed with the boldness of a latest culinary faculty grad and able to impress, I tightened my apron and made the soup. quarter-hour later I used to be achieved. Wait, that is it? I should have missed a step…

I hadn’t missed something. It has solely 5 elements: olive oil, garlic, beans, broth, and parsley. The soup simmers for simply 10 minutes. Though it sounds too simple to be good, it tastes higher than most bean soup recipes that ask for extra elements and steps.

I’ve found lots of my go-to recipes via work, and this soup is one in every of my favorites.

Simply Recipes / Myo Quinn


How I Make Marcella Hazan’s White Bean Soup

The recipe begins with a key step that can’t be skipped: Add half a cup of olive oil (do not skimp!) and chopped garlic in a medium pot, cooking till the garlic is aromatic and tan. This solely takes a couple of minute, nevertheless it infuses the oil with intense taste which explains the soup can prepare dinner for such a short while and nonetheless tastes higher than most recipes that take far longer.

Marcella requires a teaspoon of chopped garlic, however as you possibly can see within the picture proper beneath I’m a garlic fiend—I take advantage of a couple of tablespoon of garlic (three massive cloves) that I grate utilizing a Microplane grater.

Simply Recipes / Myo Quinn


Stir in three 16-ounce cans of drained and rinsed white beans, like cannellini, Great Northern beans, or Navy beans. Beans you prepare dinner your self (extra on this beneath) would clearly style higher, however I by no means really feel dangerous about utilizing canned—it permits for spontaneity and ease that makes it lovable and so helpful.

I skip salt when utilizing canned beans, however do add a pinch for do-it-yourself, plus just a few cracks of black pepper.

Lower the warmth, cowl the pot, and simmer for about 5 minutes. You’re giving the beans an opportunity to bask within the garlic oil.

Add a cup of hen or beef broth, then stick an immersion blender proper into the pot for 3 fast pulses, ensuring the blade is totally immersed in order that you do not burn your self with flying soup. (Marcella has you switch 1/2 cup of beans right into a meals mill with the broth. Use that or a blender.) Some of the beans will turn out to be clean, making a half-creamy half-chunky soup. One ingredient, two textures.

Simply Recipes / Myo Quinn


Simmer for 5 extra minutes, prime with chopped parsley, and add extra salt and pepper to style. In virtually no time—lower than quarter-hour—you made full-flavored soup, heat and comforting.

Marcella mentioned, “If one actually loves beans, all one actually needs in a bean soup is beans. Why trouble with anything?” This recipe delivers beans utilizing sensible, easy cooking methods.

Simply Recipes / Myo Quinn


A White Bean Named After Marcella Hazan

Marcella handed away in 2013, however her legacy lives on via her cookbooks and recipes—and cannellini beans named after her: Marcella Bean.

Steve Sando, Founder and CEO of Rancho Gordogrows the heirloom Italian beans as a tribute to her. It has a lovely backstory that you would be able to learn here. You’ve been Warned, IT’S A TEARJERKER.

One yr I purchased each bean-lover in my life a pound of Marcella Beans for Christmas. To at the present time, I’m reminded by the recipients of the reward and the way life-changing it was to style really nice beans—for some, the primary time ever.

BUY IT: Marcella Bean

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