From Piedmont, soups with heart

IT’S a place where women still make glorious egg-yolk-rich tagliatelle, put up jars of peppers and peaches, and, in some villages, bake bread in the communal bread oven. Piedmont, the fabled wine region of northwest Italy, has its special dishes each season, but my favorite time is fall, when the nebbia, or fog, that gives the Nebbiolo grape its name shrouds the steeply canted vineyards, and the leaves have changed to crimson and gold. Wood smoke scents the air and, at night, on the lonely country roads, headlights pick up the occasional truffle hunter and his dog heading off into the forest.

On days the fog is so thick you can’t even see your hand, hilltop villages are wrapped in silence. That’s when the women make nourishing pots of soup, leaving them to simmer on wood-burning stoves that do double duty as heaters.

Over the years, I’ve spent weeks at a time in the hills around Barbaresco and Barolo, poking into the kitchens of chefs, winemakers and home cooks, chopping vegetables alongside grandmothers as I listened to stories and recipes that were passed down from generation to generation.

Back home in Los Angeles, I find myself returning to these recipes again and again. When the light takes on a certain clarity and the leaves begin to drop from my pecan trees, I’m compelled to stay in on a Saturday or Sunday, cooking soup.

I love the way a simmering stock scents the whole house, the idea that it goes on for hours, the ritual of getting up from my book to stir the pot. And, of course, I love that I can have a taste of Piedmont in my own kitchen.

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Recipes to remember

EACH region in northern Italy has its own version of pasta e fagioli, the hearty bean and pasta soup. In Piedmont, it’s typically made with borlotti beans.

Clara Rivetti, wife of wine producer Giorgio Rivetti, freezes the marbled burgundy-and-white beans straight from her garden. (If you want to grow your own, borlotti can be ordered from catalogs such as Shepherd’s Garden Seeds). Right now, you can find them fresh at farmers markets. And in a pinch, you can also use dried borlotti or cranberry beans, even cannellini beans.

The pasta is maltagliate, which means “badly cut,” namely the scraps left over from making agnolotti or tagliatelle -- and adds to the earthy appeal of the soup. Of course, you can also make a small batch of fresh egg pasta just for the soup, or use good-quality dried egg noodles.

If the soup is made a day or two ahead, it will have more flavor. In this case, wait to cook the pasta until just before serving.

Another memorable Piedmontese soup, also made with borlotti, as well as chickpeas and wheat berries, comes from Locanda Borgo Antico, a sweet little restaurant in the center of Barolo where I’ve had some wonderful meals over the years.

When chef-owner Massimo Camia served this soup one fall, he told me that it is a dish from the Cinque Terre (a remote part of the Ligurian coast).

“But it also is made in our region,” he said. “My father used to always tease us, and call it animal feed, because we raised our veal calves on dried beans and grains. But by changing a few components, it became a great minestra.”

The rustic flavors of this bean and grain soup are heightened by a generous dose of black pepper and fragrant green olive oil stirred into the steaming soup just before serving. It’s infinitely better than the particular combination of ingredients sounds at first take.

Like many such soups, it’s actually better the next day. “Really,” Camia said, “it’s even better in three days. The more it rests, the more flavor it seems to acquire.”

It has the heartiness of a stew, in contrast with a Piedmontese chicken noodle soup that’s traditionally made in summer but served in cooler weather too.

The chicken soup recipe comes from Guiliana Clerico, wife of Barolo wine producer Domenico Clerico. Domenico’s mother would make the handmade pasta the night before for the minestra di bata il grana -- the wheat harvester’s soup.

“They call it ‘the soup of beating the grain’ because in those days when they did this work it was very hot,” Giuliana Clerico explained, “usually July, and neighbors would come to help each other out. For the wives of the farmers in this region, it was perhaps the biggest event of the year. They were cooking for 20 or 25 people. Now because it was so hot and the work was so hard, no one wanted to eat pasta asciutta [dried pasta], so for the lunch break they made this soup, which was rich, more digestible and also easy to cook.”

Clerico’s version is a refined one made with strips of poached chicken, flavorful diced chicken livers and the handmade tagliatelle (known as tajerin in Piedmont), broken in pieces.

To obtain the rich broth for this soup, Clerico boiled a whole chicken, then shredded the meat and added it back to the broth. The soup is delicious using just the dark meat, which is more moist and flavorful.

Place a pot over the fire, begin to stir, and you can’t help but feel the soothing cadence of autumn.

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Minestra di fagioli e maltagliate (bean soup with pasta)

Total time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, plus overnight soaking

Servings: 8

Note: From Clara Rivetti. If not using fresh pasta, use a good-quality dried pasta such as Rustichella D’Abruzzo, available at Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica and Whole Foods stores. You can substitute the tomato with 2 canned, imported Italian plum tomatoes.

2 cups dried borlotti (cranberry) beans

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for serving

1 tomato, peeled and diced

8 sprigs parsley, leaves only, chopped

8 to 10 basil leaves, torn

Half a dried hot red pepper, chopped

1/2 pound fresh egg tagliatelle pasta or dried egg pasta, cut or broken into 2-inch lengths

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. The night before, soak the beans in 12 cups of cold water. The next day, drain the beans and reserve the soaking water.

2. In a large, heavy pot, saute the carrot, celery, garlic, onion and potatoes in the olive oil until the onions are soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the beans and 8 cups of the reserved water. Stir in the tomato, parsley, basil, dried red pepper and a big pinch of salt, about 1 teaspoon or to taste.

3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook gently until the beans are tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove a cup or so of the beans and puree or smash, then add back into the soup. Thin the soup with a little water, if necessary. Taste for salt.

4. Cook the pasta in abundant salted boiling water (less than a minute for fresh pasta; 8 to 10 minutes for dried).

5. Reheat the soup and stir in the cooked pasta. Serve in wide soup bowls. Pass a cruet of olive oil, the pepper grinder and a little freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Each serving: 362 calories; 17 grams protein; 58 grams carbohydrates; 15 grams fiber; 8 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 21 mg. cholesterol; 321 mg. sodium.

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Chickpea, borlotti and wheat berry soup (mesciuva)

Total time: 3 hours plus overnight soaking

Servings: 12

Note: From Massimo Camia, chef-owner of Locanda Borgo Antico in Barolo, Italy.

2 cups dried chickpeas, organic if possible

2 cups dried borlotti (cranberry) beans

1 1/4 cups wheat berries

Salt

3 sprigs rosemary

5 sage leaves

3 bay leaves

Freshly ground black peppercorns

Olive oil, preferably from Liguria

1. The night before, soak the chickpeas, borlotti beans and wheat berries separately in abundant cold water.

2. The next morning, cook them in separate pots with just the soaking water and a big pinch of salt, skimming the foam from the top occasionally. The cooking time of the beans varies every time he makes the soup, Camia says, but it’s usually several hours until they’re really tender. (The wheat berries should take about 2 hours).

3. Once the chickpeas, borlotti beans and wheat berries are cooked, remove from heat and let cool in their cooking liquid.

4. Combine the chickpeas, borlotti beans and wheat berries (including all the liquid) in a large pot. Make an herb bouquet of the rosemary, sage and bay leaves, tying them with string. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 1 hour or so to meld the flavors.

5. Remove from heat, add lots of freshly ground black pepper and stir in 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

6. Serve in warmed shallow soup bowls. Drizzle a little more olive oil over each serving, if desired.

Each serving: 299 calories; 15 grams protein; 50 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams fiber; 6 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 202 mg. sodium.

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Wheat harvester’s soup (minestra di bata il grana)

Total time: 3 to 3 1/2 hours

Servings: 6

Note: Adapted from Guiliana Clerico. If you happen to have homemade chicken stock on hand, you can poach some chicken in it before adding the other soup ingredients.

1 (4 1/2 -pound) chicken, rinsed and cut into half, excess fat removed

1 large carrot, cut into 3-inch pieces

2 stalks of celery, cut into

3-inch pieces

1 large onion, peeled quartered

8 peppercorns

3 sprigs of parsley

2 sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 pound fresh chicken livers, trimmed and cut in 1/2 -inch dice

1 sprig sweet basil

1 plum tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped fine

1/3 pound fresh tagliatelle or fettuccine pasta or egg noodles broken into 2-inch pieces

Parsley leaves

1. Make chicken stock. Place the chicken, carrot, celery, onion, peppercorns, parsley, thyme and bay leaf into a large pot. Add 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a low simmer (the water should be barely bubbling). Simmer uncovered for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, occasionally skimming off the fat and impurities that rise to the surface.

2. Carefully remove the chicken to a bowl. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer. Discard the solids.

3. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and the bones and discard. Shred the dark meat and set aside. Reserve the white meat for another use.

4. In a small skillet, heat the olive oil and quickly saute the chicken livers until pink inside, about 2 to 3 minutes.

5. Place the strained stock in a large saucepan. Bring it to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Add the basil sprig, chopped tomato and fresh tagliatelle. Cook until the pasta is done, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the livers and shredded chicken.

6. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in warmed, shallow soup bowls. Garnish with parsley leaves.

Each serving: 363 calories; 31 grams protein; 26 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 14 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 166 mg. cholesterol; 549 mg. sodium.