White bean soup with mussels

New dawns, new days. The september sunset – no one greater.
Yesterday, coming back from Trieste, on the bridge over the Tagliamento river it was moving. The DAB sounded Only love and, in this perfect matching between the orange-pink light that radiated from the mountains and the gentle words of Ben Howard, I grasped the need to stop more often to listen – for the mere taste of enjoying the moment.
When I got home, threw the bag, PC and shoes in random order, the need was to savor the scents and aromas of early autumn. Lighted candles that warm up the first cold, music that sounds soft and a bottle of white wine waiting patiently in the cellar to be opened.
An ode to carefree dinners. I found it in this white bean soup with mussels, calibrated to perfectly balance the thermal shock of late summertime.

A heartening recipe to best accompany the serene evenings made of lanterns, sofas and blankets. Velvety cannellini beans, potatoes that pamper the palate, the strong and warm scent of garlic and chilli,

mussels like an orange apostrophe between the words I’m hungry.

Cannellini bean soup with mussels – the creamy recipe

INGREDIENTS (serves 4 people)

• 30 g of white onion
• 60 g of celery
• 40 g of carrot
• 200 g of potatoes
• 2 cans of cannellini beans (800 g with its liquid)
• half a kilo of fresh mussels
• half a glass of white wine
• a clove of garlic
• dried chilli and black pepper q.b.
• fresh parsley q.b.
• extra virgin olive oil q.b.

PREPARATION

1. Coarsely cut the onion, celery and carrot. Fry all in a saucepan for a few minutes with half a clove of garlic and the chilli.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. Add them to the vegetables along with the beans, their liquid and a glass of water. Cook with a lid for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, clean the shell of the mussels. Prepare a cooking base for them with oil and half a clove of garlic; as soon as it sizzles, add the mussels. Let them open and add the white wine.
4. As soon as they hatch, remove them from the heat and filter the liquid that remains on the bottom with a narrow mesh sieve (better if you also use a sheet of absorbent paper, in order to retain all the impurities).
5. Then add the liquid from the mussels to the bean soup – whose liquids should have been almost completely dried.
   Blend the cannellini bean cream with an immersion blender, it should be smooth and velvety. Taste, it should not be necessary to add salt.
6. Serve the white bean soup with mussels, the chopped parsley, a drizzle of raw oil and a pinch of black pepper.