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1
Wash the dry beans and soak them in water overnight.
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2
In a large pot, put the soaked beans, cover with water, add the 2 garlic cloves, the sage leaves, and some of the olive oil. Do not add salt at this point because the beans don't cook. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the beans are well cooked.
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3
Cut up the potatoan and squash in small similar size pieces. Slice the onion and the remaining garlic. Wash the leaves of the Cavolo Nero and shred them in medium sized pieces. (You don't want to have a huge piece of cabbage hagging from your mouth when you are eating the soup!!)
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4
In a pot, add olive oil, the sliced onion, the garlic, the potatoes, squash and the Cavalo Nero. Stir and add 1 ladle of the beans cooking water. Add a little salt and cook for 20 minutes.
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5
Meanwhile discard the sage leaves, strain the beans reserving the cooking liquid. Divide your beans. Reserve 1/4 whole and puree the remaining 3/4 with a blender, adding some cooking liquid.
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6
Add the pureed beans and the whole beans to the vegetables, add cooking liquid as necessary, adjust the salt, add some freshly ground black pepper and cook for a further 30 minutes.
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7
Serve the soup in bowls, drizzle some olive oil on top and eat with slices of bread. The traditional way of serving this soup in Tuscany, is putting stale slices of bread on the bottom of a bowl and the soup is poured on top.
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8
Note: If you like this soup, drop in our house in Tuscany, come help harvest the olives and I'll serve you the soup under an Olive tree.
