Albanian Bean Soup: Pasul

Albania is one of the countries of the Balkans, in southeastern Europe. When I was a kid, Albania was scarcely ever mentioned on the news, although for those younger folks nowadays who have grown up with the Internet, cable television and 24 hour access to news, it may be hard to imagine a time when news was MUCH MORE limited, and if you wanted to learn about a particular subject, like Albania, you had to actually go to the library and read information in books. hahaha!

Anyway, Albania was a communist-dominated country, run by Enver Hoxha (pronounced like, "en-vair hode-jah") from the time the Axis forces of fascism withdrew from Albania late in World War Two, until he died in the mid 1980s. As I've noted here before, when I was a kid, times were tense in Europe, as Soviet-dominated countries in eastern Europe faced off against far more democratic countries in central and western Europe, led by the three Western Allies of World War Two, the United States, Great Britain and France, all of which provided occupation forces in their respective zones of Germany in the postwar era. These forces increasingly provided a counterbalance to Soviet and Soviet satellite nations in Europe, although initially they were there to prevent the reemergence of Nazism in Germany and Austria. The one thing I remember about Hoxha's Albania was, it was not dominated by the Soviet Union, but in fact, it allied itself with China, then always referred to in the U.S. as "Red China," to distinguish it from Taiwan, which was always called "Formosa," back then, and which was recognized by many nations as "China." Are you confused yet? If not, I could go on, but I'll spare you (hahaha!), but such were the international politics of those times.

Albania was long under the dominance of the Ottoman Turks, and indeed, it wasn't until the early part of the 1900s that Albania gained its independence, which was lost to Mussolini's Italy in 1939 and regained with the defeat of fascism. The Albanians have had many influences from their neighbors and conquerors, as the former Christian nation saw a majority of its people convert to Islam a few centuries ago, and many culinary influences came from the Italians, the Greeks and the Turks.

For decades there was a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Cleveland called, "The New York Spaghetti House," founded by an Italian immigrant who had spent his first couple of years in the U.S. in New York City. When he moved to Cleveland and opened his restaurant, he named it after his first American home city. I ate there often over the years, and there was a waiter there who was from Albania! I can't remember his name now, but my curiosity about other countries, other peoples and other languages led to some conversations with him. He never wrote down customer orders, he remembered each order. There may have been some other waiters there who did the same, I just can't recall now.... so don't ask me to remember your order!   

This soup, also seemingly made by some as a thicker stew, is one of the national dishes of Albania, although it is also called "fasule" or "grosh" by some Albanians, and there are numerous variations in recipes. You can certainly use dried beans to make this dish, but I like to "cheat" and use canned beans.If you want more of a stew, thicken the mixture to the desired thickness with some flour and water.

Ingredients:

2 cans (15 to 16 ounce cans) white cannellini beans (or great northern beans), drained
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil 
2 tablespoons sweet paprika (preferably Hungarian)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (or a 14 to 15 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained)
1 lamb shank 
1 tablespoon mint
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
water to cover 
 
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it softens, then add the lamb shank, the tomatoes, the paprika and enough water to cover. Bring the mixture to a simmer and adjust the heat accordingly to keep the soup at a gentle simmer. Cover and cook until the lamb is tender, then add the beans, the mint, the pepper and the salt. Simmer for another 20 to 30 minutes. Adjust the seasonings to suit your taste. I take the meat off of the lamb shank bone and add it back into the soup. Serve with pieces of crusty bread and a salad.  

Pasul with a kale salad ...

WORD HISTORY: 
Yearn-This word goes back to Indo European "gher," which had the notion of, "to want, to desire, to like to have or do." This gave Old Germanic a form like "gernanan," with the same meanings, but by extension further to, "to be eager for, to have a liking for." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "giernen" (also "geornan" in some dialects), meaning, "to long for, to desire, to seek for, to be eager." The beginning sounds came to be spelled as "y," and thus produced modern "yearn." The extensive nuances in meanings have produced numerous relatives of "yearn" in the other Germanic languages, including: German "begehren" (to desire, to wish for), gieren (to crave mightily, to greedily crave), and the common adverb "gern" (gladly, readily, willingly), English once had "georn" (desirous, eager); Low German "gieren" (to ask for something; that is, something desired); Old Norse had "gjarn" (desirous).