Results - White bean velouté with salsa verde and candied pancetta

I like beans in dip, I like beans on toast and now I've discovered I like beans in soup. Who would have ever thought! Overall I was pretty pleased with my attempt at the Comme Kitchen recipe. The leek soup was sweet and extremely filling with all the extra fiber coming from the beans. Overall it was extremely healthy too, if you chose to ignore the fact that there was about a bucket load of cream added to the finished product.



I really enjoyed the crispy pancetta ontop, giving the otherwise vegetarian soup of bit of flavour twist. Although I've had sweetened pancetta before, it was still a little strange for my taste buds. You would take a mouthful of the soup, taste the minty freshness from the salsa, creamy buttery-ness from the soup and then the sweet candy element from the pancetta. All a little strange, but oddly pleasing. It was a wintry cold when we had this, so curling up with a hot bowl of soup, some crusty bread and a warm heater was the order of the day.



I do have a couple of bones to pick though. Whenever I chose a recipe to tackle, I'm usually lured in by the pretty pictures. I had grand fantasies of my dish turning out as spectacular as the original. In this case I was hoping for a pristine white soup accented with the vivid green salsa. Somehow my soup ended up yellow with splodges of green glop.

I know what happened to the salsa verde. I had a pretty hopeless food processor. The minimum amount of liquid require to get a good result is about 1L, so my chopping and emulsifying didnt quite turn out the way I had imagines, in fact it turned out more like a pesto than an actual sauce. The salsa was also slightly bitter, which I attribute to the whole making process, rather than cleanly chopping alot of the herbs ended up bruised. It tasted quite nice when mixed into the soup, but was a little unpleasant when eaten in a large blob.


My next issue was with the candied pancetta, well more an issue with me really. I dusted the pancetta shoved it in the oven and waited a little while. I tested the pancetta and it was still overly soft, not to the crispy result I had desired. So I shoved it back in and waited a little while longer, by the time I thought it was time to pull it out, it was too late. The sugar had began to caramelise and turned the pancetta into a dark mess. And after all that the pancetta was still not as crispy as I had expected. oh well.





This recipe is pretty easy, it can be put together in under 45 minutes, especially if you use canned beans which have already been soften. Although, the next time I make this I might pay a little more attention to my pancetta. If you would like to see the recipe again, go here.

White bean velouté with salsa verde and candied pancetta

Restaurant: Comme Kitchen (VIC)
Recipe from Chef Daniel Southern (recipe from Gourmet Traveller website)
2010 Rating: Number 93, 1 Star

Its funny how sometimes you come across recipes. On this occasion the thinking process went a little something like this;

I have a leek and a can of beans, I wonder what I can make with them? Google my old friend, bingo....leek and bean soup.

So simple, and the recipe looks pretty darn simple too. So heres the recipe with the results to follow soon.


White bean velouté with salsa verde and candied pancetta
Serves 4

Cooking Time Prep time 20 mins, cook 1 hr 25 mins(plus resting, proving)

100 gm unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
2 leeks, white part only, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 thyme sprigs
1 fresh bay leaf
2.2 litres chicken stock
110 gm dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight in cold water, drained
200 ml thickened cream
120 gm round mild pancetta, thinly sliced (about 8 slices)
For dusting: pure icing sugar
Salsa verde
1 cup (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley
½ cup (loosely packed) mint
¼ cup (loosely packed) basil
3 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp small capers in salt, rinsed
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
175 ml extra-virgin olive oil


1 Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat, add vegetables, garlic, thyme and bay leaf and stir occasionally until tender (7-10 minutes). Add stock and beans, bring to a gentle simmer and cook until beans are very soft (1-1¼ hours). Discard herbs, process mixture in a blender until smooth, pass through a fine sieve, stir through cream, season to taste and keep warm.

2 Meanwhile, preheat oven to 160C. Place pancetta on a baking-paper-lined oven tray, sift icing sugar over in a thin, even layer, top with baking paper and weight with another oven tray. Bake until crisp (10-12 minutes), set aside.

3 Meanwhile, for salsa verde, process herbs, anchovies, garlic, capers and mustard in a food processor until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil in a continuous stream until emulsified and set aside. Makes 270ml.

4 To serve, divide white bean velouté between bowls, drizzle with salsa verde and crumble over candied pancetta.