Tomato Tomatoe

endive bean brodo

This recipe is from Matty Matheson’s cookbook, Home Style Cookery. I’ve slightly tweaked the recipe based on ingredients that I had on hand. If you’re not familiar with Matty Matheson, he’s a Canadian chef and restauranteur, he’s also a producer and stars in the Bear (I highly recommend this show if you love food and want a closer look at the restaurant industry).

Anyways, back to the soup! I knew I had to try this recipe because it uses minimal ingredients. I also happened to have all of the ingredients on hand minus the escarole which I have never seen at a grocery store or farmers market in my area. In replace of the escarole I used endive which worked wonderfully! This soup is very easy to make and highlights beautiful homemade chicken stock, summer beans (I used Romano beans that I had in the freezer from the summer), slightly bitter endive (or escarole if you can find it), salty and nutty parmesan cheese and it comes together with a touch of white wine vinegar.

In Matty’s recipe, he used a variety of beans which would be amazing in this soup but again, I used what I had on hand and it turned out to be super delicious! I highly recommend making this soup and it also freezes very well. I honestly think it tasted better once I took the leftovers out of the freezer. The flavours really married together.

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escarole bean brodo

Ingredients

• 1/2 head of endive or escarole, roughly chopped
• 3 cups Romano beans or white cannellini beans
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1 leek
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 celery ribs
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 quarts homemade chicken stock
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper
• splash of white wine vinegar
• 1 small Parmesan rind
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• good quality olive oil for drizzling

Directions

1. Clean the leeks and cut into a small dice. Dice the celery and onion and mince the garlic.
2. Heat a medium sized Dutch oven to medium heat. Melt the butter. Once the butter is bubbly, add the onions, leek and celery and cook until the onions are translucent and there is a bit of caramelization. This should take 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes until fragrant.
3. Deglaze with white wine, scrapping the brown bits from the pot. Let this reduce for 5 minutes. Add the beans and chicken stock. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the parmesan rind. If you are cooking with Romano beans that are frozen, they will take about 1.5-2 hours to cook fully in the broth. If you are using canned beans the soup will need to simmer on low for 30 minutes.
4. Add the endive or escarole during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Remove the Parmesan rind. Off the heat add a splash of white wine vinegar.
5. To serve, drizzle with good quality olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.