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Friday, July 19, 2013

Tuscan White Beans

This week I have been reading A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A bittersweet adventure.


The jury is still out on the book for me.  It is very descriptively written...filling my mind with scenes and food imagery. At the end of every chapter, there is a recipe.

About a third of the way through, I found a recipe for some Tuscan white beans.  In the book and the subsequent recipe, they cook the beans in a bottle in the ashes of a wood fire all day.  However, that basically will never happen in my lifetime here.  I love to cook, but I'm not that dedicated to the authenticity of the whole thing.

But, after reading through it, I figured out a way that I could make it work with some changes to their recipe and some changes to the cooking method.

I made it today and the smell in the house was flat out amazing.  The beans were part of tonight's dinner and they frankly blew me away.  The ingredients were so simple, but the flavor was outstanding.  

I served the beans over some Italian bread...torn into chunks...and had some prosciutto to go with the whole Italian theme in my head. 

Tuscan White Beans
  • 1 lb dried beans
  • water
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • few grinds of pepper
  • 1 tablespoon rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon sage
  • 4 cloves of garlic crushed
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1-1/2 cup white wine
Start by soaking the beans.  I use the quick-soak method ....cover with cold water, cover pot, bring to a boil, turn off, leave covered for 1 hour, drain, rinse.  Or, you could cover with water and soak overnight.

After the beans are presoaked, put in pan and cover with fresh water.  I use a pressure cooker for this.  With the pressure cooker, you lock the lid on, bring it to pressure, reduce heat, cook for 10 minutes, release the pressure, drain, and the beans are ready to season.  If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can put in any pan, cover with water and cook covered for an hour or so until the beans are tender.  Both ways work equally well, the pressure cooker is just super quick.

I then put the beans in my slow cooker; added the salt, pepper, rosemary, sage, garlic, white wine, and olive oil; and cooked on high for 4 hours. And done!!!!!

If you don't have a slow cooker, you could just drain the beans (again); add in the seasonings, wine, and olive oil; add in 2 cups of water (you'll need more moisture cooking on a stovetop); and cook covered on the stove top for 1-1/2 hours.

Simple ingredients.....amazing taste.

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