Humble home-cooked beans
My first thought when I saw these beans on a menu in Italy was 'Beans on toast?' But then I tasted them. I felt pretty humbled that such a simple dish had been made to taste so gorgeous. Once you've learned how to season and cook them in the right way, you can apply the method to cannellini beans, butter beans, borlotti beans, haricots verts, lentils, even chickpeas. If you've grown your own beans, good on ya! Fresh ones will take about 45 minutes to cook, but you're more likely to get dried beans as they're cheap, and very reliable to cook. However, they will need soaking for at least 12 hours.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 13 of 15 ingredients — the other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 13 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Sourdough | 1 slice (36g) | 93 |
| Cherry | 1 cup (138g) | 87 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Cannellini Bean | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 300 g dried borlotti or cannellini beans, soaked in cold water for at least 12 hours
- 3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- a few sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 stick celery, trimmed
- 1 small potato, peeled and halved
- 2 cherry tomatoes
- extra virgin olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- a few sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 4 slices sourdough bread