White bean soup with hazelnut pesto

You can make this with butter beans or haricots, but the texture is superb with collapsed, creamy cannellini beans. Serves 6 For the soup 450g dried cannellini beans 2 large carrots, diced 2 large red onions, diced 8 garlic cloves, chopped 3 celery sticks, sliced 3 tbsp light olive oil 4 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped 3 bay leaves Pinch of bicarbonate of soda 1.5 litres light chicken or veg stock 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or red wine) For the pesto 150g hazelnuts 50g shelled walnuts 150ml extra virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, peeled 3 sprigs of rosemary, chopped 50g flat leaf parsley, chopped 1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional) Vinegar (red wine or sherry) 1 Soak the beans overnight. The next day, sweat the veg in the light olive oil over a low heat. Add the chopped rosemary and bay leaves. 2 Drain the beans and add to the pot with the bicarbonate of soda. Pour in the stock and top up with water – the liquid should rise four inches above the beans. 3 Bring to the boil, skim the surface, then simmer for around two hours until the beans have wilfully collapsed. 4 Make the pesto. Roughly blitz the hazelnuts and walnuts. Pour half of the olive oil in a pan on a low heat. Add the nuts and garlic. 5 Slow fry for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Once the nuts have coloured, add the chopped herbs and chilli. 6 Infuse for 10 minutes, then cool. 7 Pulse in a food processor to a coarse paste. Scoop into a bowl and stir in the rest of the olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. 8 Once the beans are soft and mushy, stir in the extra virgin olive oil and a splash of the vinegar. If you like, you can encourage the beans to break down further with a potato masher. Season extensively. 9 You can either serve the pesto as a blob on top of the soup or stir it in.