Tuscan Bean Soup is one of those quick, easy Italian favorites that you can prepare in a little over 30 minutes.

It’s also one of these great Italian recipes which has no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ recipe. The two staple ingredients are tomatoes and Cannellini beans – but aside from those, you can pretty much ring the changes to suite your taste.

(You could be trying this delicious Tuscan soup tonight… Click on the main headline above for the recipe.)

This is where you go locally for that special meal – especially for lunch in summer, when you can sit outside on their lovely shady terrace with views of the Majella National Park…

(Where ? Click on the main headline title to find out…)

Within five minutes of starting, the large compressed-air ‘hands’ that strip the olives from the branches and onto nets spread under the trees had broken.

The rest of the morning was a catalogue of frustration as Rocco and I drove off to get a new part; came back and found we couldn’t fit it; which then necessitated yet another hour-long round trip back to find someone who could. Which we did. Eventually.

(Think that olive harvesting’s easy ? Think again. But the results are undeniably delicious. Click the main headline title above to discover more…)