If you’re making salad with the tender, inner leaves of a head of escarole, this is a good place to use the tough outer leaves. In fact, they’re even better for this soup. Just remove any bruised or yellow parts of the leaf and shred the rest. If you like, double the amount of beans in this recipe, fish half of them out of the pot after cooking, and save them for the Arugula and White-Bean Salad on page 60. Spoon off all but enough of the cooking liquid barely to cover the remaining beans before adding the escarole and finishing the soup. Whole dried peperoncino or diavolillo peppers are the type of chili peppers that are used, seeds and all, to make the crushed red pepper that you are familiar with. Toasting the whole peppers along with garlic cloves in olive oil brings out their nuttiness and spice. I like to serve them whole right in the soup, where they can be easily spotted and removed.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 6 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Cold-soak or quick-soak the beans according to the directions on page 84. Drain and transfer to a 5- or 6-quart pot. Pour in 2 quarts of water, toss in the bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat to simmering, pour in 1/4 cup of the olive oil, and cook until the beans are tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. By the time the beans are tender, they should be covered by about 1 inch of cooking liquid. Season the beans to taste with salt. Stir in the escarole and cook, stirring occasionally, until the escarole is quite tender, about 15 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat.
Step 2
Heat the remaining 1/4 cup oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, shaking the pan, until lightly browned. Add the whole peperoncini and cook, shaking the pan, just until the peppers change color, about 1 minute or less. Remove from the heat, and carefully—it will sputter quite a bit—pour one ladleful of soup into the skillet. Swirl the pan to blend the two, then stir the panful of seasoned soup back into the large pot. Check the seasoning and let the soup rest off the heat, covered, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve, with the garlic bread if you like.
