White Beans with Greens and Tomatoes

Although dry beans often come to mind as a winter, comfort food, today's recipe for a bean dish is a perfect transitional dish from winter to spring. It is not a very rich as a bean dish can be, thanks to fresh herbs, spinach and tomatoes.

Bean dishes are quite popular in the Mediterranean cuisine, especially northern Italian. The inclusion of Feta cheese suggests that this one comes actually from the Greek culinary tradition.



White Bean Baked with Greens and Tomatoes
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound dry cannellini beans, which must be washed and soaked overnight in water,
1 medium onion,
1/2 bunch of spring onion, finely chopped,
1/2 cup chopped dill,
6 oz bag of baby spinach,
1 lb plum tomatoes, cut into small cubes,
1 cup crumbled feta cheese,
6 tbsp olive oil,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Put the beans in a large pot, cover with water and cook on a medium heat until beans are cooked but still very firm. Drain the beans and save about a cup of water.
2. Preheat oven to 375F.
3. In a large frying pan heat 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add chopped onion and fry until transparent. Toss in spinach leaves and cook them until wilted and water evaporates. Add chopped spring onion and dill and cook together for about 2 minutes.



4. Mix the beans with cooked greens. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to an oven proof dish.
5. Drizzle the remaining 4 tbsp of olive oil on top of the beans. Pour in about half a cup of the leftover water from cooking the beans. Cover the top of beans with chopped tomatoes and sprinkle with crumbled feta.



6. Cover the baking dish with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for about an hour, until the beans are soft. If the water evaporates and beans are still hard, add extra water and let it bake a little longer.



Serve hot alone or with country breads.

White Beans Sautéed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pancetta

This recipe is an upscale or at least drier version of what you used to get at any place serving food in Poland and was called Beans à la Bretonne. It was a dish made of cooked large white beans in a tomato sauce. In the more prosperous times it was served with chopped sausage, or bacon, or even meats. But most often it was served as a protein-rich vegetarian dish.

I do not have any particular sentiment for beans made that way, but because I like all kinds of beans I found this, most probably Italian, variation of this dish interesting. It called for tomatoes, but sun-dried, and pancetta, and some extra spices and herbs.

I made it last week on a cold, windy day. I added some chili pepper flakes, which made it fairly spicy. It tasted great, warming up and comforting.

I made part of the dish without pancetta for my son, but I added more garlic and tomatoes to it. He liked it a lot. But I found it tastier when I added some pancetta to it. It did not make the dish heavier but the taste of pancetta complimented it nicely.

I also cooked the beans al dente. They were already soft, but still a bit tender when bitten, while in Poland we served them nearly overcooked. For that reason, dry beans, not canned, should be used. Beans should be soaked over night and cooked slowly for about an hour, but you really need to try how you like them. I also salted it at the end of cooking with coarse sea salt. But not too much, as tomatoes and pancetta add extra saltines already.

White Beans Sautéed with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Pancetta
(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1 lb (half a kilogram ) of dried, large white beans (e.g., Lima beans),
6-8 garlic cloves,
1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes (the best are those in oil and herbs), cut in strips
1/4 lb of pancetta (10-12 very thin slices),
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped,
1 tsp red chili pepper,
1 tbs fresh rosemary leaves.

Preparation:
1. Cover the beans with water (about an inch above) and let them soak overnight. Simmer in the same water for about an hour or a bit longer, until they have desirable softness.
2. Preheat a large frying pan. Add pancetta and fry it until it releases all the fat. Cut garlic into thin slices garlic and, add it to the pot, and fry it together for about 3-5 minutes until garlic becomes gold.
3. Cut sun dried tomatoes and add them to the pan, mix everything, and let it cook together for about a minute. Throw in chopped rosemary and chili pepper, and stir.
4. Add beans and about a 1/4 cup of water. Mix together and simmer gently until water evaporates and beans are coated in all the ingredients.

Serve hot.

White Bean Salad--A Very Lazy Idea

This is another easy salad that I love to serve with grilled or roasted meat or fish dishes. All the effort is in the chopping. Other than that, there is nothing easier to make, as it has only three ingredients, and the main one--white canned beans--I keep always on my pantry's shelf.

As today's recipe for the salad is so banal that there is nothing to talk about, I would like to take this opportunity to share a few more general culinary ideas and make some clarifying remarks on the recipes I posted earlier.

My recipes often leave space for creativity and I could be more liberal in defining the quantities of the ingredients used but, since this blog is also addressed to those who do not yet feel very comfortable in the kitchen, I try to measure all the ingredients and provide their accurate proportions to maximize everyone's chance to succeed. But you should always feel free to experiment. For instance, you could easily use more or less of the non-essential ingredients, like salt or spices, to achieve the taste you like. You could also use different fruits for the upside down cake, as it will not hurt its taste.

However, some of the recipes work well only when you use the key ingredients as recommended and strictly observe their proportions. Likewise, some of these dishes should be served only with the recommended accompaniments or at least something similar. For example: this blue cheese snack requires hard blue cheese, like Stilton, and will not work with Gorgonzola, which is soft already and will melt too fast. Similarly, yogurt dumplings will not taste right with the Asian-style sweet and sour meats, and should be served only with spicy meats of goulash type.

As soon as the summer and my traveling ends, I will start posting some of my more complicated culinary ideas, which I find more enjoyable, since they can truly prove my creativity and passion for food. But for now, lazy cooks enjoy!

White Bean Salad

Ingredients:
2 cans any kind of white bean--I used Italian Cannellini beans,
1 English cucumber,
1/2 bunch of chives or 1 bunch of spring onion,
1/4 cup chopped dill,
1 tbsp mustard,
1 tsp sugar,
juice from 1 lemon,
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,
salt and freshly ground pepper.

Preparation:
1. Open the cans of and rinse the beans with running water on the colander.
2. Peel the cucumber and cut it into small cubes.
3. Chop spring onion and dill.
4. Make a dressing from mustard, sugar, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. When the dressing is smooth, pour in olive oil and stir gently.
5. Mix together the cucumber, beans, and herbs. Pour the dressing all over the salad and serve.

This amount of salad can satisfy 4 to 6 hungry guests. Can be served for dinner with meats or as a lunch dish with bread.