PREPARATION

• On a dough board make a well with the flour, add beaten eggs, oil, and salt and mix well.

 

Begin to mix the flour with a fork toward the center of the well, then, proceed to mix the dough with your hands. Continue to knead the dough until the dough is consistent and elastic. Place it in a bowl dusted with flour, cover with a clean cloth, and let it rest for one hour in a cool and dry place. After this resting period divide it in three or four portions and proceed with a rolling pin to make as many layers of dough. With a layer of dough still around the rolling pin, cut it lengthwise, put aside the rolling pin, and cut the layers of dough in a vertical manner. The pieces (the noodles) should be 5 millimeters wide. Sprinkle them on a dishtowel lightly dusted with flour and leave them there until cooking time.

• Meanwhile prepare the sauce.

Cook the pork skin in water, and then cut it in thin slices, clean the ham bone well. In a large pan with water put the beans, the pig skins and the ham bone; bring the water to a boil, lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer for an hour. Meanwhile put a few tablespoons of oil in a pan (clay if available) and make a soffritto with the chopped salt pork, chopped onion, chopped celery, and the garlic clove. Add the peeled and chopped tomatoes (seeds removed), add a small quantity of warm water and simmer for a few minutes on a moderate heat. After the beans have cooked for one hour, remove the ham bone, and scrape from it whatever meat is still there. Add the ham meat to the sauce, add the beans and the water in which they were cooked, salt, pepper, and hot pepper to taste.

• When this sauce is ready, boil some water with salt, put the pasta in it, bring to a boil again and let the past come to the surface again, when cooked, drain it, add some of the pasta water to the sauce and then put the pasta in the sauce. Take the pan away from the fire. Let the minestra rest for a few minutes and serve it.