White bean and black olive soup

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
3 tablespoons Olive oil
3 Or 4 garlic cloves
1 cup Chopped onion (heaping cup)
½ cup Diced celery
½ cup Chopped green pepper
1 cup Zucchini chunks or finely shredded cabbage
1½ teaspoon Salt; or to taste
Black pepper; to taste
1 teaspoon Oregano
1½ teaspoon Basil
4 cups ;Water
3 ounces Tomato paste
¼ cup Dry red wine
2 cups Cooked navy beans or small white beans (1 cup raw)
1 cup Pitted, sliced imported black olives*

Directions

*You can substitute California black olives or green stuffed olives, but they won't have the flavor of those from the Mediterranean.

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot. Add garlic and onion and cook over medium heat as you prepare the other vegetables, in order, adding them to the pot as you do. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables until soft.

Add remaining ingredients. If you use canned beans, you'll need 1 pound.

Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. To serve as a sauce for linguine, simmer uncovered until the mixture becomes thick - probably more than 30 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings; more if serving over noodles. Serve with a green salad and Italian bread.

Fritschner writes: "Have you ever flipped through the same cookbook for years when, one day, a recipe jumps off the page at you? "I recently discovered this recipe in my stained and spattered 15-year-old _Moosewood Cookbook_ by Mollie Katzen. I began making it this winter, and we love it. I double the recipe as a rule and replace the zucchini with cabbage until zucchini comes in season.

"The soup freezes well and reheats in the microwave for brown-bag lunches. Sometimes we eat it as soup, but for dinner I make it extra thick and serve it over linguine." From Food Editor Sarah Fritschner's 02/24/93"Super Bowls: Hearty Soups Provide a Simple Way to Chase Winter's Chill" article in "The (Louisville, KY) Courier-Journal." Pg. C6. Typed for you by Cathy Harned. Submitted By CATHY HARNED On 12-01-94

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