La Jota–Beans and Sauerkraut Soup
La Jota soup is a recipe from Trieste and reflects as Marcella says “the earthy accent of its Slavic origins.” I really didn’t expect to like it but in the end it was a very satisfying, hearty and flavorful supper.
Making it took me 2 days; there are lots of easy steps but long simmering periods between them. What took me the longest, however was finding the fresh pork hock. After calling several butchers in town and only finding smoked jowls or hocks, a friend suggested I try “Harvey’s”, a grocery store on the south side, in the African American community. Victory! The kind butcher there cut a hock off a larger piece for me.
In additions to the hock, the soup used beans; I used dried, red kidney beans. But, the most interesting addition was sauerkraut which cooked first separately with the bacon.
And then there was the final step called a pesta (with an accent over the “a”). It involves finely chopped onion, garlic and salt pork, sauteed with flour–like a very savory roux. Here it is, turning golden:
This soup would be perfect for a cold winter night but even though we are in the midst of a beautiful spring, we loved it!
Sounds like a very interesting soup. Glad you liked it.
Congratulations, Jan, you have done well, and you didn’t give up when faced with the difficulty of obtaining the pork. Every ingredient matters, just as it matters not to put more ingredients that a dish needs. I am so grateful to you and the others who are bringing attention to the soups in my book. I adore soup, and Italy has as many terrific soups as it has sauces for pasta, which is to say beyond counting.
This looks great Jan – we are huge sauerkraut fans here so I know that we’d love this soup.
I have just made it – I started yesterday at 3pm, took a break, and finished the last part this morning. I’m using the Marcella Hazan recipe but I modified it a bit. I decided to use pork belly finely minced instead of the salt pork in the final pesta’. I used chopped pancetta and I used a smoked ham knuckle for the meat. I used the lovely fresh cranberry beans (shelled them all) and added an extra potato. While making it I researched many other versions of the soup and came to realize that it was fine to add substitute pork products, if similar. I was in Trieste in October of this year and watched it being made. Many recipes call for barley.