A warm, comforting end of season bowl from the garden — Jump to Recipe

Garnished with fresh mozzarella and parsley, and served with sourdough bread

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The weather has turned chilly and wet, and that means soup season is here. I had one last cucuzza to pull from the garden, pasta scraps from last weekend’s pumpkin tortelloni, and a notice in my inbox that the next Bean Club shipment is on its way. So, at least for me, this is a soup for using things up and turning the end of summer harvest into something warm and comforting for these chilly long nights.

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White Bean Soup with Cucuzza

I’m going to show you this recipe in two parts. We’re starting from dry beans, so we’ll be preparing those ahead of time. You definitely have the option to use beans from a can, something like Great Northern or Cannellini beans would get the job done. Similarly, if you don’t have a cucuzza (and why would you?) any kind of summer squash will do.

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Ingredients: Beans

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  • 1 lb of dry white beans: I’m using Rancho Gordo Marcella beans

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• • 1 cup Chicken Stock

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• • 1-2 Carrots

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• • 1-2 Celery Stalks

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• • 1 Small or Medium yellow onion

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• • Butter and Olive Oil

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• • 1 T Diamond Kosher Salt

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• • Bay Leaf

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• • Peppercorns

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• • Water

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Tools: Beans

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  • Knife and Cutting board

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• • Instant Pot- if you don’t have one and are using a Dutch oven or pot on the stove, please adapt this recipe to your usual technique

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Directions: Beans

I’m following my usual method for slow cooked beans in an Instant Pot, so I’ll just do a quick recap/ adjustment for these ingredients. We’ll cook the beans a day ahead, or start them in the morning to finish soup in the evening.

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Prep and Cook the Beans

For this recipe I want the vegetables to melt into the broth which will make the base of the soup later.

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   1. Wash and peel the vegetables. Rinse the beans

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1. 1. Dice them into bean-sized pieces

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1. 1. Sauté them in a combination of butter and olive oil, about 2-4 tablespoons total.

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1. 1. When they start to brown a bit, but before they have completely lost their rawness, add the beans, chicken stock, and enough water to cover by about 2 inches.

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1. 1. Process on high pressure for 10 minutes, and allow to cool undisturbed until the vent releases.

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1. 1. Open the lid, give it a stir, and add a bit more water if necessary to cover the beans by 1 inch.

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1. 1. Close the lid, and set to slow cook Medium. Check every hour until the beans are cooked through but not falling apart. Allow to cool in their liquid.

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Ingredients: Soup

This is approximately 1/2 of the cucuzza. The whole thing was about 4 feet long and 3 inches in diameter.

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  • 18-24 inches of cucuzza (or zucchini)

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• • 2-4 potatoes, depending on size

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• • a pint of whole peeled tomatoes

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• • a pint of tomato sauce

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• • one head of garlic

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• • some broken bits of pasta- shown is the dried trimmed leftover bits from making tortelloni

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• • Fresh parsley

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• • Fresh (or dry) oregano

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• • Crushed red pepper- shown is a chopped dry Rehza Macedonian

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• • a 2 square inch piece of parmesan cheese rind

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• • The white beans and their broth

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• • Olive oil and butter for cooking

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• • salt and pepper

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Tools

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  • knife and cutting board

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• • vegetable peeler

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• • spoon for scooping the cucuzza

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• • your soup pot or dutch oven of choice

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Directions

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We’ll prep the cucuzza and the rest of the vegetables, then put the soup together. With cooked beans, you can do this on a weeknight

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Prep the Cucuzza:

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   1. Peel the cucuzza and cut it into workable pieces of about 6 inches long.

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1. 1. Cut the cucuzza in half the long way, and take a look at the insides. In the first picture above, the cucuzza on the left is from the narrow end. It doesn’t have any seeds, so it can be used as is. The cucuzza on the right is full of air and seeds, and needs to be scooped.

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1. 1. Using a spoon, scoop any seeds out of the cucuzza so that it looks like the second picture above.

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1. 1. Cut the cucuzza into pieces. The size is up to you. I aimed for the size of 2 or 3 beans.

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Prep the rest of the ingredients:

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   1. Peel and chop the potatoes into pieces the same size as your cucuzza pieces.

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1. 1. Peel and finely chop the garlic.

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1. 1. Chop up the oregano and parsley separately and reserve

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Make the Soup:

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   1. Heat a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium high. Add about 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter until the foam subsides. The foam is the water cooking out of the butter, and shows you that the oil has heated past the boiling point of water.

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1. 1. Add the potato pieces and cook them until they are soft through and starting to brown.

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1. 1. Add the cucuzza pieces and cook them until they develop some color too. Stir frequently and watch the heat, you want this to go gently and not burn.

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1. 1. Add the garlic and stir around for about 30 seconds

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1. 1. Push the vegetables to the sides of the pot so there is a flat empty space in the center, and add the jar of whole peeled tomatoes. Break them up a bit with a wooden spoon.

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   1. Add the jar of tomato sauce and bring up to heat.

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1. 1. Add the beans and all of their broth.

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1. 1. Add the parmesan rind, the oregano, the crushed red pepper, and a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper.

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1. 1. Bring up to heat and then simmer slowly until the flavors blend and the vegetables are fully cooked. Don’t let the beans over-cook.

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   1. About 10-15 minutes before serving, check the amount of liquid in the soup. We’re going to add the noodles, and they will suck up any available moisture so you will probably need to add some water. If so, bring the soup back up to a simmer.

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1. 1. Add your noodles- this can be anything from broken spagetti or ditali to macaroni or even something fancy. On this day, I had just made some fresh pasta so I had these nice rustic durum flour pasta bits on hand to use up.

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1. 1. When the pasta is cooked through, it’s ready to eat. Stir in the fresh parsley, reserving some for plating.

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Plate and Serve:

This soup is really good with pieces of fresh mozzarella melting in it, as shown above. Grated parmesan is also delicious. Make sure to top with the fresh parsley, and serve with fresh bread.

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Recipe Notes

I wanted to show you one way to use a cucuzza, but you can make this with zucchini or other summer squash. If you are a gardener and have been thinking about growing these silly vegetables, I encourage you to give them a try. They will need to be trellised, and I’ve had better luck when I grow more than one plant. 4 seems to give them enough to pollinate and set fruit.

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My family’s opinions on zucchini range from indifference to outright hostility, but we (mostly) all like cucuzza. It keeps its texture when cooked, unlike zucchini which goes all mushy. The flavor is a bit sweet, and it is more like cucumber than zucchini, except that you can cook it.

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Did you try it?

Let us know what you think! We’d love to see pictures and hear about your results. I’m always available for troubleshooting.

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