Mesciua (legume and grain soup)
Mesciua is a typical soup from La Spezia made with legumes and cereals (such as beans, chickpeas and spelt) boiled separately, in order to respect the correct cooking time of each ingredient, and then seasoned with oil and pepper: no other flavours or herbs, such as garlic, parsley or celery, are needed. At one time, broad beans were also used but are no longer present in the modern recipe because they darken the soup too much. The flavour of the oil is crucial for this recipe, because it is added raw at the end: you will then need a high quality oil and on our website you can buy Taggiasco oil and Ligurian PDO oil!
The origin of the mesciua recipe is uncertain. It is speculated to be a very old recipe but today’s version with cannellini beans is certainly of post-16th century origin when these beans, imported from the Americas, began to spread in Europe. It owes its fortune to the dockers of La Spezia and is also widespread in the villages of the Golfo dei Poeti. The name comes from the dialect (mescciüa) and means ‘mixture’.
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One of the reasons for the recipe’s popularity lies in the variety of ingredients with which it can be made. In fact, it is said that in the past the composition varied according to what was left over from the sacks unloaded in the port of La Spezia. It was common for sacks to break during embarkation and disembarkation from ships and so this leftover became extra pay for casual workers.
So the preparation of the recipe is very free, as long as it is made with legumes and cereals (e.g. spelt, barley, millet, broad beans and peas) and cooked separately. Some people add other flavours to it, even grated pecorino cheese, but perhaps its strength lies in the simplicity of this poor, popular dish.
Mesciua (legume and grain soup)
INGREDIENTS FOR MESCIUA
HOW TO MAKE MESCIUA
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Soak the ingredients
Being a legume and grain soup, the dry ingredients need to be soaked two days in advance. Take three containers and put the beans, chickpeas and wheat in plenty of cold water. Add bicarbonate of soda to the pulses. Every 24 hours change the water.
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Cook separately
The uniqueness of mesciua compared to other soups is that the three ingredients are cooked in three different pots and then mixed together only at the end. Take the chickpeas, beans and wheat, drain them from the soaking water and put them in the three pots in cold water. Start cooking and then adjust the salt. The chickpeas and wheat take longer to cook, almost two hours, while the beans are ready sooner (about an hour and a half). When everything is cooked, drain and cook together again for 15 minutes, with a little water and some of their cooking liquid. It is a fairly dry soup. Serve with plenty of extra virgin olive oil and pepper.
