Good Evening and welcome to What’s for Dinner!
I was really inspired by strawbales's WFD post all about beans and have been focusing on making meatless or almost meatless dishes lately to balance out some of the meat-heavy stuff that my other half likes to make on the weekends. This dish I teased in the comments section here a few weeks ago but it’s so good I made it twice! The first time I used canned beans and it was so delicious I decided I really wanted to do it from scratch and double the recipe! It was soooooo worth it!
Marcella Hazan’s Stewy White Beans
-recipe from alexandracooks.com/...
INGREDIENTS
Soaking and cooking the beans:
- 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 qts water
- 1 lb. dried white beans, such as cannellini or great northern
- 1 onion, peeled and halved through the core
- a few sprigs thyme
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- 1 bay leaf
White beans stewing in the big pot
For the stewy beans:
(double these amts if using your whole pot of cooked beans)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small bundle sage, optional
- a few sprigs of thyme, optional
- 3 cups cooked white beans, drained
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup water, chicken stock or vegetable stock, plus more as needed
- bread for serving
- grated Parmigiano Reggiano for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
Soaking and cooking the beans:
Dissolve the 3 tablespoons of salt into the water. Add the beans and soak for 8 to 24 hours. Drain, rinse and place in a pot with the onion, thyme, garlic, bay leaf and remaining teaspoon of salt. Cover with water by three inches. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and cook at the gentlest simmer for about 45 minutes or until the beans are cooked through. Let beans cool in their cooking liquid. Discard thyme sprigs, bay leaf, and onion. Store beans in their cooking liquid.
As I mentioned above, I really liked this dish so I decided to use the whole pot of now cooked beans and doubled the quantities of the ingredients for the stew part of the recipe:
- Place the oil and chopped garlic and the sage and thyme in a soup pot and turn the heat to medium. Cook the garlic, stirring it until it becomes colored a very pale gold.
- Add the beans,a pinch of salt and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 5 to 6 minutes. I found when using my homemade beans there was not as much liquid so they started breaking down faster so move on to the next step using your preference for how soft the beans will get.
- Uncover, add the cup of water or stock and simmer for another 6 to 8 minutes or until some of the beans have broken down and turned the broth creamy. Remove the sprigs of thyme and sage and discard. Taste, and correct for salt and pepper. Turn off the heat.
- Note: If the bean liquid thickens up too much, add water or stock as needed to thin it out. If you make this ahead and plan on reheating, you most likely will need to thin with water or stock. Taste again, and correct seasoning as needed.
Now I was inspired by a recent episode of America’s Test Kitchen to seek out some good Fontina recently. Wanting an excuse to try it I used it instead of Parmesan and made quick toast with some nice como style bread brushed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and grated Fontina.
Serve stew over toasted bread and garnish with additional grated cheese, and freshly ground black pepper.
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