Help! Will you send a recipe for American Bean Stew?
Hi folks!
Thanks for the replies - lovely recipes, I can feel a beanfeast coming on!
Kitchenelf, your Italian beans sound really nice, but the addition of sugar and cilantro are not Italian. What are navy beans? Here we use cannellini beans and pinto beans mostly. Anyway, here is a recipe for Tuscan Bean Soup
500gr pinto beans
1dl extra virgin olive oil
finely chopped white onion, stick of celery and two cloves of garlic
The white part of two thin leeks, chopped finely
1dl home-made fresh tomato sauce
bouquet garni of rosemary and thyme
sprig of sage
two unpeeled garlic cloves
Soak the beans overnight, then cook slowly in water with a pinch of salt added, and a twirl of extra virgin olive oil - I also like to add a couple of unpeeled garlic cloves and a sprig of sage. In a separate pan, sweat the vegetables and the bouquet garni of rosemary and thyme in some extra virgin olive oil. When the onion is transparent and soft, add the tomato sauce, cook over a gentle heat for a few minutes, and then add the beans with enough of the cooking water to make a thick chunky soup. Adjust the seasoning, and serve piping hot. That's the Tuscan version. In Piedmont, they puree half the beans to make a really thick creamy soup. Serve fresh grated Parmesan separately.
In Southern Italy, they add more of the liquid the beans were cooked in and cook 'mezze penne' in as well - this is 'Pasta e Fagioli' (Bean and Pasta Soup). In this case, the soup should look more like a dish of pasta than a soup. Some people like to add finely chopped carrot to the base vegetables - it's still good.
Cooking the beans. I prised this way of cooking beans out of the proprietor of the Ristorante San Camillo, in the Borgo San Jacopo, just off the Ponte Vecchio in Florence years ago. White cannellini beans - especially fresh - are especially good cooked in this way. Depending on what I'm using the beans for, I sometimes add two - three really ripe fresh plum tomatoes as well. The olive oil in the cooking liquid is a must.
The addition of ham is typical of North East Italy, and in Venice, Pasta e Fagioli should have ham in it.
As for me, as soon as I get hold of some ham - difficult to get hold of here, for some reason, - I'm going to make that pinto bean dinner. Then I'm going to do the Black bean soup. Then I'm going to do the recipe with cod. And so on!!!Thanks
ciao
dianne