Hearty Recipe For Escarole And Beans With Pancetta

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This warm and creamy recipe for escarole and white beans with pancetta makes the perfect hearty soup for a cold winter night. Serve it with crusty bread for dipping and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese for more of an Italian feel. 

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We’ve eaten a lot of escarole when traveling in Italy. Although it is not as common in American cooking, that is changing. This recipe for escarole and beans has a bit of an Italian feel to it with the addition of parmesan cheese and pancetta. 

Escarole and white beans make a great pairing because they both pack a punch of protein and fiber. There’s also a bit of sweetness to the Italian white beans and pancetta, which offsets the bitterness of the escarole.

Check out our other Italian-inspired recipes:

Hearty Instant Pot Pasta Fagioli

One-Pot Chicken, White Bean And Spinach Saute

Sauteed Brussel Sprouts And Pancetta With White Beans

Creamy White Beans With Lemon And Dill

Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana

Vegan Mushroom And Lentil Ragu Recipe

What Is Escarole

Escarole is a type of leafy green, that looks a little like something in the lettuce family. It actually is part of the chicory family. This makes it more similar to endive and frisee.

Whereas frisee is best for salads and doesn’t really cook up well, escarole is more flexible. Escarole can be eaten raw or cooked. 

How To Cook Escarole 

Escarole can be eaten both raw and cooked. There is a little bit of a bitter flavor to the raw vegetable, which is why I prefer to cook escarole. If you do want to make a salad from escarole, focus on the lighter colored, inner leaves, which are less bitter than the darker exterior leaves. 

Cooking escarole is pretty easy. Before cooking, give it a quick rinse just like you would any other leafy vegetable. The easiest way to cook escarole is to saute it up in olive oil and a bit of garlic. It’s a great veggie side dish for chicken or steak. 

I like adding escarole into soups and stews or adding it to pasta dishes. 

Escarole Health Benefits

Escarole packs more of a health punch than lettuce, with more vitamins and minerals. This is particularly true when served raw. Escarole is high in fiber and low in calories, which makes escarole with beans a perfect pairing. It’s also a good source for vitamin A and folate.

Key Ingredients For This White Bean And Escarole Soup

The base for this escarole white bean soup recipe packs a lot of protein into one pot. In addition to escarole, we used canned cannellini beans. Cannellini beans are an Italian bean also known as a white kidney bean because of their shape.

It’s also possible to use dried beans and then soak them overnight. 

Chicken broth forms the base of the soup, but vegetable broth can be used. For this recipe, I used pre-made chicken broth but you can use chicken bouillon as well.

Add in onion, garlic, and carrot for a holy trinity of veggie flavor. The thing is, only the carrots will make their way into the final soup, which is a bit unique. It’s also great for people like me who don’t really like onions. 

Check out our recipe for Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup With Cannellini Beans.

Additional Ingredients And Seasonings

Seasoning in this escarole and bean soup recipe comes from salt, pepper, bay leaf, and crushed red pepper flakes.

Acidity comes from the diced tomatoes used in the soup as well as a spritz of lemon juice at the end. 

Cooking With Pancetta

The fat in the dish comes from pancetta and olive oil. You can usually find pancetta, an Italian cured meat, in either sliced or diced forms.

To make this dish vegetarian, skip the pancetta and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. 

What Cheese To Use

The parmesan adds a creaminess. I used domestic (American) parmesan, which is a perfectly good alternative to Parmigiano Reggiano when cooking.

I like to save the properly aged Parmigiano Reggiano for eating on its own. Be sure to buy a chunk of parmesan with a rind, or thicker edge, to add into the soup. 

How To Make Escarole And Beans

If using dry beans, pre-soak the beans overnight. Otherwise, rinse the canned beans in cold water. 

In a Dutch Oven, combine beans, broth, and ¼ cup olive oil. Cover with cold water. Add onions, carrots, whole garlic cloves, bay leaf, and parmesan rind. Simmer for two hours. Remove the onion, garlic, bay leaf, and what remains of the rind. Let the carrot remain. 

About 30 minutes before the beans are done, heat ¼ cup olive oil with minced garlic and pancetta. If you buy diced pancetta, just add it in. If you buy sliced pancetta, place it in the freezer for about 30 minutes beforehand to make it easier to slice into strips.

Slowly add the diced tomatoes. Start with about a tablespoon of tomatoes and be careful to watch for spray back from the pancetta and oil. Add salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. After about 15 minutes, add escarole and toss to cover. Once escarole starts to wilt turn off the heat. 

Once everything is done, combine in the dutch oven to warm. Add a bit of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and stir

Tips For Making White Beans And Escarole

Because I use a few ingredients in this recipe that are maybe not all that common, here are some more tips on how to get this white bean escarole soup just right.

Cooking With Pancetta

Pancetta is found in most grocery stores in either diced or sliced form. The diced form is a little easier to cook with because you can just add it right into the skillet.

I like using sliced pancetta because I find it more flavorful. It can be a bit more difficult to work with, though, because it is so soft.

I put the package of pancetta in the freezer about a half-hour before I want to use it. When I remove it from the package, I roll it up. Then, I slice it with a sharp knife.

When I add it to the oil, I break it up a bit more so that in the end there are small strips of pancetta in the pan that start to crisp.

When adding the tomatoes, I usually add about a tablespoon of tomatoes first to allow it to mix with the pancetta and oil. Be careful because you might get some oil splashback.

Cooking With Escarole

I used a little less than the full two heads of escarole for this recipe. It seems like a lot, but it cooks down a lot smaller. It reacts like spinach or kale this way.

I cut off the base of the escarole and left about an inch or so above the base. Then, I sliced up the escarole but left it in pretty chunky pieces.

Add the crushed red pepper to the tomatoes before the escarole. I find that adding red pepper to green, leafy vegetables makes the greens a little spicier than needed.

I added a large handful of escarole at a time and coated it in the tomato and pancetta mix. To add it all in at one time is fine, but you will need a very large skillet.

 

Modifications And Variations 

Don’t have access to pancetta? Try escarole and beans with sausage. You can either slice Italian sausage or remove it from the casing and break it up in the pan.

Can’t find escarole? Use kale as a more readily available, and often cheaper, alternative.

To make this dish vegetarian, use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and add a little extra oil to make up for the loss of the fat from the pancetta.

If you don’t have a lemon, use a tablespoon of red wine vinegar to give the extra bit of acidity.

FAQs – Cooking With Escarole

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