Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup: A Simple, Delightful Dish to Satisfy Your Soul

Marcella Hazan’s lentil soup recipe is one of our favorite soup recipes. It’s warm, comforting, and flavorful, and fills your home with the aromas of home-style Italian cooking while the soup cooks.

Serves: 4 Time: 1 hour Cookbook: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

There’s something special about a good soup. With its comforting and restorative nature, soup has made its way into every single cuisine on the planet. After all, what could be simpler than simmering fresh vegetables, grains, legumes, herbs, spices, and meat together, and letting the flavor, vitamins, and minerals infuse the broth? Not to mention the soul-satisfying aromas that fill your home. We’re here to tell you that Marcella Hazan’s lentil soup will do all of this.

Italian soups are beloved throughout the world for their simple, rustic, and hearty creations. Dependent on the variety and freshness of ingredients in their season, Italian soups such as Marcella Hazan’s lentil soup are packed with flavor and substantial enough that you could make a meal out of it.

Jump Ahead:

• ❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• 🍲 Ingredients Needed to Make Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup
• 🍴 Equipment You’ll Need in the Kitchen
• 🥄 How to Make Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup
• ♾️ Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup Variations
• ❓ Lentil Soup Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Classic Italian: This recipe is as Italian as they come. While you may typically think of pasta, a lot of lentils are used throughout Italian cooking. This is one of many lentil recipes you’ll find in Marcella’s cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and we recommend them all.

Great Recipe: We make it our mission on this blog to find you the best recipes by the best chefs from around the world. Marcella is known the world round for her Italian cooking and this recipe belongs in the annals of best Italian recipes of all time. The best part – the recipe is so easy to follow it’ll come out right the first time you make it and every time after that.

Comforting, Healthy, and Hearty: This is comfort food at its best. Whether you’ve had a long hard day, you need a break from life, or you simply need a hug from your soup bowl, this will do it. It’s healthy and hearty, as well, meaning you’ll feel great and fill up at the same time.

Ingredients Needed to Make Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup

To make Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup, you’ll need:

• Butter: The recipe calls for several tablespoons butter to increase the creaminess and richness of this soup.
• Olive Oil: Extra virgin is always best.
• Onion: White onion is perfect for this recipe, though a yellow onion or even a sweeter red onion will work in a pinch if that’s what you have on hand.
• Carrot: A small or medium carrot is perfect.
• Celery: You’ll only need a piece of celery stalk.
• Pancetta, Prosciutto, or unsmoked Country Ham: This contributes a salty, savory flavor to the dish.
• Italian Plum Tomatoes: You can find these with other canned tomatoes in the grocery store. If you’re short on tomatoes, swap in a little tomato paste to boost the flavor.
• Lentils: Brown or green lentils are best for Marcella’s original recipe.
• Beef Broth: You can use storebought low-sodium broth, or your own homemade broth for this recipe. Homemade broth will always be a bit more flavorful than storebought, but the soup will turn out great, either way.
• Parmigiano–Reggiano Cheese: This tops off the soup and you definitely want to include it.
• Pinch of Salt and fresh Black Pepper: These are used to season the soup to taste, meaning you only need as much as you like to finish the soup off at the end. Always use kosher salt and fresh ground pepper if at all possible.
• Fresh Herbs: Parsley is used to garnish the soup but you can garnish with other herbs of your choosing, as well.

Equipment You’ll Need In the Kitchen

Stock Pot

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Strainer

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• Stock Pot: A large stock pot is ideal for this recipe.
• Strainer: You’ll use this to wash and drain the lentils.

How to Make Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup

This delightful soup is perfect for an appetizer or as the main dish when served with Mark Bittman’s no-knead bread or salad on the side.

Brown the onions and ham

Place a stock pot on the stove on medium heat.

Add olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter. Heat until the butter is no longer foamy.

Dice the onion and ham. Add to the pan and cook for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon so nothing burns until the onions develop a golden-brown appearance.

Add the veggies

Dice the celery and carrots.

Once the onions are browned, add celery and carrots and cook until fragrant (2-3 minutes).

Add the tomatoes with their juice to the soup pot. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 25 minutes. The tomatoes should bubble gently at a steady pace.

Add the lentils

After you’ve let the tomatoes simmer, wash the lentils in cold water and drain in a strainer. Place the lentils into the stock pot, along with the 4 cups of beef broth and a pinch of freshly cracked black pepper. Bring the soup to a low, gentle simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat if the soup starts simmering vigorously.

Cover the pot with a lid, and cook until lentils are done, stirring occasionally. This should take 45 minutes or so, depending on the type of lentils you use. Test the doneness of the lentils by tasting them. They should be soft like cooked beans.

Note: It’s important to check the liquid level from time to time, as lentils tend to absorb moisture. If the soup is drying out, add more stock or water.

Finish off the soup and serve

Once the lentils are fully cooked, add the remaining tablespoon of butter along with the 3 Tbsp of grated parmesan cheese. Stir until fully incorporated. Turn off the heat.

Taste and adjust for salt or pepper. Serve with more parmesan cheese as a garnish grated on top.

Marcella Hazan’s Lentil Soup Variations

Once you’ve mastered this recipe, you can use it as a guide for other types of hearty soups. With a few tweaks in the main ingredients, you can create something of your own! Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started.

Tuscan Bean Soup with Bacon and Kale: Using the same technique described in the recipe, swap the lentils for white beans, thick slices of cooked bacon (cut into pieces) instead of pancetta, and add a whole bunch of kale (chopped) into the soup while the beans are cooking.

Pasta Soup with Meatballs: Follow the main recipe as described but swap the lentils for half a pound of dried fusilli pasta, and add 16 oz. store-bought (or homemade) meatballs to the soup while it’s simmering. Voila! a one-pot meal.

Vegetable-Forward: If you’d like to use more vegetables in this soup, use a whole medium chopped carrot, a whole celery stalk, half a chopped onion, and a cup or two of hydrated chick peas when building the soup.

Lentil Soup Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

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More Soup Recipes

If you’re looking for more soup ideas, try letting Mark Bittman’s Deconstructed Chinese Chicken Soup warm you up!