As cook-ahead staples go, cannellini beans are a particular favourite in this house of mangia fagioli (bean-eaters). Tinned beans have saved our supper on many occasions, but they are incomparable with those soaked and cooked at home. It’s not just the beans, which have a better flavour and consistency, but the cloudy, suspicious-looking bean cooking liquid. This bean broth, full of starch and flavour not only preserves the beans well, it’s an ingredient in several of the recipes, giving flavour, body and consistency. I learned to love and cook cannellini beans with Graziella, a cook and cookery teacher from Maremma in Tuscany. She taught me most beans don’t need soaking, just a long, slow simmer (really long if the beans are old). Soaking though, speeds up the cooking time, which is why I soak. It was Graziella who taught me too to cook-up a big batch of beans then use them over several meals, to keep the simmer at a blip-blip quiver and to add couple of bay leaves to the pan.
Of course half the satisfaction and reassurance of batch cooking is finding your own rthymn, discovering how much you want to cook in advance and which dish works best on which day. I’m suggesting a soup, a stew, creamy beans, a puree and a salad, but only you know best how these could fit into your week of lunches, packed lunches and suppers. Four meals of beans is a commitment, so you might find it reassuring to know you can put the soup, the puree, or simply a portion of beans in the freezer, giving you a headstart on the following week. Of course there is a chance you forget to do this, and a portion of beans lies fizzy and forgotten at the back of the fridge. When this happens, I remind myself that three out of four isn’t bad ... The recipe I haven’t written out properly is my favourite, which isn’t really a recipe, simply a dish of warm cannellini beans dressed with good extra virgin virgin olive oil and salt to be eaten with bread and a glass of good, everyday red wine.
To cook the batch of beans
750g dried cannellini beans
3 bay leaves
1 Soak the beans in plenty of cold water for at least 8 hours or overnight (for me this is usually Saturday and then I cook the beans on Sunday). Rinse the soaked beans, tip them into a large heavy pan, add enough cold water to cover them by at least 10cm and add the bay leaves. Bring the pan almost to the boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook until the beans are tender, which should take about 1 hour, depending on the age of your beans. Once they are cooked, stir in a generous pinch of salt and leave them to cool in their liquid. You will have about 1.9kg of beans – enough for four meals for four people.
The soupy-stew: Pasta and beans (pasta e fagioli)
There are as many versions of this quintessential and beloved Italian dish as there are cooks. This version of pasta e fagioli (pasta and bean soup) uses – unsurprisingly – cannellini beans. It is a dish that invites relaxed improvisation and common sense, so please treat this recipe as a rough outline rather than a set of specific instructions.
Serves 4
6 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
50g pancetta (optional), roughly chopped
2 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
A pinch of red pepper flakes
A pinch of salt
400g cooked cannellini beans and some of the bean cooking broth
200g small pasta, ideally ditalini
1 Warm the olive oil in a heavy-based pan and sweat the onion, celery and pancetta until soft and translucent.
2 Add the tomatoes and garlic to the pan along with the bay leaves, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt. Stir, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
3 Scoop a couple of ladles of bean cooking water from the pan into a measuring jug, then make it up to 1 litre with plain water. Add the white beans and the liquid to the other ingredients, stir, then simmer for 20 minutes.
4 Remove half the soup from the pan, blend or sieve to a puree, then return it to the pan. Check the seasoning and adjust to taste. You can pause at this point, let the soup cool and keep it in the fridge for up to two days.
5 Bring the soup to the boil, add the pasta and cook until tender. You need to keep stirring and you may need to add a little more water if it seems too thick. Serve with some more olive oil poured on top.
The hearty main: Creamy cannellini beans with sage and sausages
Warm cannellini beans with plenty of olive oil, scented with garlic and sage, then puree just a few of the beans with bean broth before returning them to the pan, and you have what we call creamy beans. Delicious with sausages.
Serves 4
8 sausages
2 garlic cloves, peeled and squashed
6 sage leaves
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
500g cooked cannellini beans
Salt and black pepper
1 Grill or pan-fry the sausages until browned and cooked. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, warm the olive oil and gently fry the squashed garlic and sage leaves until fragrant. Add the cooked white beans to the pan and stir until they are warmed through and coated with olive oil.
2 Transfer about a third of the beans from the pan into a bowl. Either mash by hand or use a stick blender to reduce the beans to a puree with a ladleful of bean cooking water, then return to the frying pan. Stir, adding a little more bean cooking water if necessary. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly.
3 Divide the creamy beans between four plates and top each with slices of cooked sausage. Serve.
The quick dip: Cannellini bean and lemon puree (main picture)
Inspired by a Lindsay Bareham recipe ripped from the Evening Standard on a bus on my way home from work, I used to make something like this a lot when I lived in London. More recently Mark Bittman wrote about it and reminded me it had been years. Cannellini make the most brilliant, soft, nutty puree – an anaemic hummus lifted and sharpened by lemon zest. Great as a dip, on sandwiches or on top of a baked potato. Keeps well for a couple of days in the fridge.
Serves 4
400g cooked cannellini beans
1-2 garlic clove(s)
A pinch of salt
80ml extra virgin olive oil
A splash of bean cooking liquid
Zest of one unwaxed lemon
1 Using a food processor or stick blender, reduce the beans, garlic and a pinch of salt to a thick paste. Taste and, if you like, add another clove of garlic and blend again.
2 Still blending, add the olive oil in a thin stream until it has all been incorporated. Loosen the paste with a little bean cooking water and a final blend. Scrape the puree into a bowl, add lemon zest and more salt, to taste.
The light lunch: Cannellini bean, tuna, red onion and parsley salad
A great combination and favourite spring and summer lunch. You can also add fennel, celery, watercress or rocket.
Serves 4
1 small red onion, peeled and finely sliced
400g cooked cannellini beans
A tin of tuna, drained and flaked
A small handful of parsley, chopped
A handful of capers, drained
A pinch of salt
A splash of extra virgin olive oil
2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered (optional)
1 If you find the flavour of raw onion too strong, soak the slices in a bowl of cold water with 2 tbsp wine vinegar for 15 minutes beforehand.
2 Put the beans, red onion, flaked tuna, chopped parsley, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil in a bowl, toss gently, taste and adjust seasoning .
3 Top with quarters of hard-boiled egg, if you like.
Rachel Roddy is a food blogger based in Rome. Her first book, Five Quarters (Saltyard) is published in June. Follow her on Instagram @rachelaliceroddy
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion