Cuba’s black-bean soup ranks with France’s steak frites and Italy’s spaghetti with red sauce as a national obsession. It is a touchstone dish of the Caribbean.

Usually made with dried beans (definitely worth the extra cooking time when you have it), the dish can nonetheless be adapted to a streamlined model with canned beans. One way to make up for a lack of long simmering is to blend the beans and some liquid into a highly flavored sauté and give everything a short time on the stove. The soup blossoms with a rest off the heat, and an overnight stay in the refrigerator gives it even fuller flavor.

This soup demands a finish of onion and lime juice or vinegar (sherry vinegar is our pick).

Steps

1. Trim the meat away from the ham-hock bone, cutting it into small pieces. Don’t be too fussy; leaving some on the bone is fine. Film the bottom of a 10-quart stockpot with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the meat, bone, cloves, onions, bell peppers, and salt. Sauté for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the vegetables are sizzling and there’s a brown glaze on the bottom of the pan (the vegetables need not brown, and take care not to let that glaze blacken).
2. Add a little of the broth along with the garlic, bay leaves, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and tomato paste. With a wooden spatula, scrape up the glaze as you simmer the mix on medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Then add the beans and the remaining broth. Adjust the heat so the soup bubbles gently. Cover the pot tightly, and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Stir in the juice from 2½ limes or ⅓ cup of the vinegar. Taste the soup for seasoning. Adjust the salt, pepper, and lime juice or vinegar to taste.
4. Ladle the soup into bowls, topping each serving with a heaping tablespoon of chopped onion and a little fresh cilantro. Have the hot sauce on the table. In Cuban style, you could ladle the stew over rice.