INGREDIENTS
60 g butter or 3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
6 roma (plum) tomatoes, peeled, seeded, finely chopped (or 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes)
1 ham hock
1.5 litres chicken stock
250 g podded peas
100 g dried short macaroni or other short soup pasta
400 g cooked or tinned cannellini beans, rinsed, drained
1/4 bunch each chervil, chives and flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked, chopped
parmesan, grated, to serve
crusty bread, to serve

TO MAKE 

Heat the butter or olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes or until soft. Add the tomatoes and cook for two minutes, then add the ham hock and stock. Simmer gently for two hours.

Remove the ham hock from the soup, cool slightly, then shred the meat and discard the bone. Skim any excess fat off the soup.

Add the ham, peas and pasta to the soup and cook for seven minutes or until the pasta is al dente and the peas are tender. Add the cannellini beans and heat through, then add the chervil, chives and parsley and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Ladle the soup into warm bowls and serve with parmesan and crusty bread.

Images and edited recipe extract from Alla Fratelli: How to Eat Italian by Barry McDonald. Published by Murdoch Books.