Bowl of Grain & Bean Harvest Soup
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Grain & Bean Harvest Soup


Italy   -   Crapiata
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 16 cups
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1 day
Yes		 This wonderful soup is perfect for Samhain! Of grains, beans, grass pea and vegetables, it's an ancient harvest celebration dish, still very much usable today.
The name of this soup, from Latin, implies drunkenness, suggesting wild harvest celebrations. This version is "modernized" by adding White Beans and Potatoes from the New World, but some go farther and include Tomatoes.




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-- Soaked
Farro (1)
Pearled Wheat (2)
Fava Beans,dry (3)  
Chickpeas dry
White Beans (4)
Grass Peas (5)
-- Vegies
Potatoes (6)
Onion
Carrots
Celery
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Water
Salt
Pepper
-- Garnish
Olive Oil ExtV
Do Ahead   (overnight - 5 min work)
  1. Soak BEANS and GRAINS with Salt and sufficient water overnight, or at least 8 hours. Soak Grass Peas separately. Drain and rinse.
Make   -   (1-1/2 hr - 1 hr work)
  1. In a 5 quart soup pot, place drained Bean / Grain mix. Add Water and bring to a boil uncovered. Skim off any foam that rises as it comes to a boil. Simmer for 1 hour.
  2. Parboil Grass Peas three times, discarding water each time. Drain and add to the pot.
  3. Meanwhile:   Peel POTATOES and cut into about 1/2 inch dice. Hold in cold water until needed.
  4. Cut ONION, CARROTS, and CELERY into 1/4 inch or smaller dice. Mix all.
  5. When Beans have simmered until nearly cooked, about 1 hour, stir in drained Potatoes, Onion mix, Salt, and Pepper. Bring back to a boil and simmer until all is tender, about another 30 minutes.
  6. Serve hot with some Olive Oil drizzled over (optional).
NOTES:

  1. Farro:

      This is an ancient form of wheat that continued in use in parts of Italy due to tolerating poor soils. It has now gained sufficient interest in North America to be available in multi-ethnic markets, markets serving a yuppie class community, and from Bob's Red Mill. For details, see our Wheat page

  2. Pearled Wheat:

      [Pelted Wheat]   This is whole wheat grains that have had the hard husk milled off. It is especially common in markets serving an Anatolian and/or Caucasian community. For details, see our Wheat page

  3. Fava Beans:

    Use dried Fava beans that have been peeled, sold as "Yellow Fava Beans". The unpeeled ones can take 24 hours of soaking time and long cooking so don't match the other ingredients. For details see our Fava Beans page.

  4. White Beans:

      In Italy, they use Verdolini beans (Fagioli Sarconi) which are not much available in North America. I use Great Northern beans which are the most available around here, and they work fine. Verdolini are also New World beans. All the beans are soaked in salt brine because that produces beans that cook better than just soaked.

  5. Grass Peas:

      [Cicerchie (Italy)]   This member of the Sweet Pea genus has been used in southern Italy and parts of Spain since ancient times. It is now becoming fairly common in North America, but usually needs to be ordered on-line. This pea is famous for the crippling neurotoxins it contains, but this toxin is not a problem if Grass Pea is a minor part of the diet. I very much doubt the par boiling has any effect except to make the cook feel better about serving a toxic pea - feel free to skip it. For details see our Grass Pea page.

  6. Potatoes:

      White Rose or similar work well in recipes of this sort. Avoid Klondike Gold type potatoes - they quickly turn to mush with long cooking or reheating. For details see our Potatoes page.

  7. Samhain:

      This is the most popular celebration in the Neo-Pagan calendar. Originally a harvest celebration, it was so essentially Pagan, the Christian Church tried to eliminate it. They failed, so they moved All Saints Day and All Souls Day to what is now commonly known as "Halloween" in hopes of diluting it - but were never able to erase its Pagan roots.
  8. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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