Fagioli con le Cotiche

Easy·30 min active + 2 hours resting

San Marino's beans with pork rind — white or borlotti beans slow-cooked with strips of pork rind (cotiche), tomato, garlic, and sage into a thick, rich, gelatinous winter soup. A Christmas-season pot.

Fagioli con le cotiche is a hearty Sammarinese-Romagnolo winter soup, the pork rind giving body and richness to the beans. Traditional around Christmas.

Spoon up fagioli con le cotiche — a thick, brick-red bean soup with soft, gelatinous strips of pork rind melting into it. Bite: the beans are creamy and earthy, the pork rind silky and rich, the broth deep with tomato, garlic, and sage, lightly thickened by mashed beans. Rib-sticking and frugal, it is the Apennine winter pot, born to make a little pork feed a whole table.

Long simmering turns the pork rind's collagen into silky gelatin, giving the soup body and richness without much meat. The beans release starch as they soften, thickening the broth; mashing a few thickens it further. Sage and tomato cut the richness — the thrifty logic of using every part of the pig.

Variations

With pasta added (pasta e fagioli). With pancetta instead of rind. Spicier with chili. With rosemary. Pureed smooth. With a parmesan rind simmered in.

On the Palate

Where Fagioli con le Cotiche sits in the Sammarinese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

How it's made

8 steps · 30 min active + 2 hours waiting

1
8 min
Soak 400 g dried white or borlotti beans overnight; drain.
2
10 min
Scrape and clean 200 g pork rind; cut into strips and blanch 5 min.
Watch out
Blanch the rind and rinse — it should smell clean, not porky; that quick boil pulls the off-smell before the long simmer.
3
6 min
Soften 1 chopped onion, 2 garlic cloves, and a little chopped carrot in 3 tbsp olive oil.
4
6 min
Add 2 chopped tomatoes, 1 tbsp tomato paste, and a few sage leaves; cook 5 min.
5
4 min
Add the beans, pork rind strips, and water to cover well.
6
92 min
Simmer gently 90 min until the beans are creamy and the rind is meltingly soft.
Watch out
Done when the rind turns jelly-soft and the beans go creamy — the broth should feel silky from the melted collagen.
7
3 min
Season with salt and pepper; mash a few beans to thicken.
Watch out
Mash a spoonful of beans against the pot and stir back in — that's what thickens the soup, no flour needed.
8
3 min
Serve hot with crusty bread and a drizzle of olive oil.