This soup is usually eaten after the first frost, from mid-November to mid-March, right when the oil-mills are operating and soup is the best way to test the quality of oil. In this period there are plenty mountain herbs (borage, fennel, nettle, poppy, thyme, marjoram, oregano, mint and many wild plants used for cooking) which represent one of the main elements of this recipe that has countless variations, as everyone personalizes it by adding different herbs.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 25/30 finely cut black cabbage leaves
• 4 bunches of borage
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 large carrot
• 1 medium onion
• a pinch of thyme
• a piece of lemon rind
• 1 kg of fresh white Sorana beans PGI or half a kg of dried beans
• half a litre of extra-virgin olive Oil Toscano PGI
• salt to taste
• 3 tbsp of tomato sauce
• a pinch of finely chopped red pepper (capsicum)
• 300 g of home-made bread
• garlic

Proceeding

Cook the beans in 2 litres of cold water and put a part of them in the cooking water. Add the cabbage and the borage finely chopped and the carrot, the celery and the onion finely chopped then add the extra-virgin olive oil Toscano, the tomato and the salt. Cook well in boiling water and half an hour before removing it from the heat add the aromas: thyme, lemon rind and very finely chopped red pepper.

Toast some slices of home-made bread and rub them with garlic. In the soup tureen alternate the slices of home-made bread with the soup. Leave it to rest for a few minutes and season with extra-virgin olive oil Toscano.