Pasta with Anchovies, Greens & Beans

The Tuscans really really love their beans. They are mocked as being mangiafagioli (= bean-eaters) but they understand the glory of the bean.

This is a simple straightforward dish that has really deep complex flavors. It's umami-laden and nutritionally complete and costs almost nothing.

The frugal Tuscans know a few things!



Ingredients

1 1/2 cup rigatoni (substitute by penne)

1/2 cup borlotti beans (fresh or dried, read below)
6 anchovies
3 cups wild greens (e.g. wild arugula, dandelion greens, etc.)

2 cloves garlic (chopped fine)
olive oil
parmigiano-reggiano (grated)
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

First, cook the beans in salt water. If they are fresh, they will take less than 15 minutes to cook. If dried, about an hour. Separate but reserve the water.

Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a rolling boil. Toss in the pasta and cook until al dente (roughly 12 minutes.)

Meanwhile, fry the garlic in some olive oil. When golden, toss in the anchovies, and the beans. Sauté for a while. Add the beans and fry for about a minute. Toss in the water reserved above. Toss in the greens and cook for about 2 minutes.

Toss with the pasta, and serve with the parmesan and plenty of fresh black pepper.

Prosciutto, White Bean & Mesclun Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

This is really really brilliant. The CC first ate it at a local eaterie and has been hankering for it ever since.

The origin is only vaguely Tuscan in nature pairing off their love for white beans and prosciutto and basil into one lovely salad. The multitudinous textures alone do the trick but this is a meal in and of itself.

The original salad had arugula in it but the arugula was so pathetic locally that the CC bought home some mesclun instead.

It makes a perfect summer meal.

Ingredients

1 cup white beans
1 tomato (diced fine)
generous handful of basil

2 servings mesclun
parmigiano-reggiano (thinly shaved)
prosciutto

olive oil
vinegar
salt
pepper

Recipe

The recipe may sound fussy but the hardest part - cooking the white beans - can be done in advance.

Cook the white beans until just under tender. The CC used a pressure cooker. Let it cool down in a refrigerator for a while.

Shave the parm really thin. This may sound fussy but is really necessary.

Blend the basil with some vinegar and salt into a liquidy paste. Mix the white beans, chopped tomato, and 75% of the basil liquid. Season to taste. Set aside.

The rest of the paste should be mixed with some more vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and made into a vinaigrette.

Serve the white bean salad topped with parm, and the mesclun and vinaigrette topped with the prosciutto.

The Mercado in Florence : Part 3 : Poultry

The tiny birds which are unmarked are quails.

Why "hot dogs" are sold with "poultry" is best left to the imagination.

The Mercado in Florence : Part 2 : Animals

Poultry and rabbits and lambs - oh my!

The Mercado in Florence : Part 1 : Tripe

Courtesy of the same friend, some pictures from Florence.

All the parts of a calf, pig or cow are for sale. Most considered Florentine delicacies. A bit like being at an anatomy lesson said my friend. Special note to be made of the beef nerves and pig lungs.

Shocked animal-eaters and vegetarians should note that this is both eco-friendly and rooted in a culture of respect of the animal by not wasting any of its parts.

Brutti ma buoni

You have to love the Italians for these. The name translates to "ugly but good" which is an accurate enough description.

To those scared off by dessert and baking, the pressure is off. When they come out misshapen (and they will), you can claim that it was "intentional".

They are light and crispy because they contain no flour (like meringue cookies.)

Ingredients

6 egg whites
1 1/2 cups fine white sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon-cloves

1/2 cup hazelnuts (blanched)
1/2 cup almonds (blanched)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Recipe

Roast the hazelnuts and almonds till lightly toasted. Pulse in a food processor till they are broken. Do NOT grind to a fine powder.

Meanwhile, whip the egg whites till they form soft peaks. Yeah, this involves whipping air into the eggs and it takes forever and is very laborious. Deal.

The whipped egg whites are (G + S)/W in the classification scheme. They are not a sauce so they don't show up in the list.

Add the sugar, and mix till dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Put the mixture over a VERY LOW flame, and stir till thickened and golden (20 mins or so.) Do not let it burn. You need to keep stirring and scraping as it thickens.

Butter a cookie sheet and drop them into irregular lumps at intervals. Bake at 300°F for 30-40 mins until hard.

Pasta con fagioli

The Tuscans really really love their beans. Among the Italians, they are sometimes referred to derisively as mangiafagioli (bean-eaters.)

White beans are not just a dish but a way of life.

We're gonna make a Tuscan classic, and we're gonna do it the Tuscan way, which is the ol'-fashioned anal-retentive way, which needless to say gives superior results.

This one trick over here gives it the serious complexity of a meat sauce, even though this is completely vegetarian. Of course, if you have some prosciutto or guanciale, toss the diced pig in post-soffrito, and pig out afterwards.

There is only one way to describe this dish: effin' delicious.

In fact, serve it lukewarm with some olive oil drizzled on top, and you can dump the pretense of the pasta too.

Ingredients

2 cups white beans (soaked overnight)

3 cloves of garlic

1 large onion† (diced fine)
2 large carrots (diced fine)
1 stick celery (diced fine)

† After they are diced, they must be in a ratio of 2:1:1.

12-16 tomatoes (passed through a food mill)

1 parmigiano-reggiano rind
more parmigiano-reggiano (grated)

1 cup red wine (use drinkable stuff)

1 bay leaf
2 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 dried red chilli pepper

1 branch rosemary

extra-virgin olive oil
parsley (chopped fine)
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

First up, the beans need to be soaked overnight, and the water discarded at 12-hour intervals. The water will turn yellow, and those in the know, refer to it as acqua fartorum. Let it go. For your own well-being, and for those that sleep besides you at night.

The tomatoes need to put in boiling water for roughly 8 minutes each, and passed through a food mill. Yeah, this is hard work but since this is not Rachel Ray™'s Room for Rubes & Retards™, you must pay the price for good food.

Rotate, baby, rotate; get those triceps a movin'. Yeah, that means you.

The recipe is quite simple but needs patience.

First up, the soffrito of the Holy Trinity (just like the French mirepoix.)

At a low heat (you knew that, right?) fry the onions and garlic, then the carrots, finally the celery. If this doesn't take the better part of 20 minutes, you're doing it wrong, and you will pay the price in taste.




Add the cinnamon, cloves, red chilli pepper, and bay leaf, and fry for a bit.

Add the wine, and scrape the bottom to deglaze the pan. This is the last of the "hard work" so just scrape properly, okay? OKAY.

Just make sure you use a good Italian red, and the CC ain't talking about Roberto Rosselini neither.


Ignore the spillage at the left hand side of the picture. That's what happens when you try and cook and take pictures at the same time.

Add the beans, and the tomatoes, and the salt and pepper, and the rosemary and the parm rind.





Let it simmer (at a low heat) until the beans are soft. Timings are hard because they basically depend on the age of the beans but we're looking at the better part of 2 hours here.

Yes, this matters, it matters, it matters. Don't argue. Make it first the CC's way; talk back later.



You may need to add some water from time to time if the stuff starts sticking.

Now, it's time for a visit to the confessional. After about 2 hours, the beans hadn't even started softening while the tomato sauce was getting nicely caramelized. Outside, the hungry hordes were pawing at the kitchen door. The summer heat and the kitchen heat and the stomach heat was getting to everyone concerned. Tension was mounting.

So the CC unceremoniously dumped the entire melange into his pressure cooker, added some water, and the beans were ready 10 minutes later.

Serve with parsley, the grated parm, lots of black pepper, and an Italian red.

Mangia bene!

Pasta con fagioli

Zuppa di farro con borlotti cannellini e ceci

A wondrous medley of textures and tastes. A bit of work to prepare but unforgettable.

Tastes wonderful when reheated, and served at room temperature barely warm.

Summer's just around the corner. Why not make it?

Recipe

1 cup farro (emmer wheat, substitute with spelt)
1 cup borlotti beans
1 cup cannellini beans
1 cup dried chickpeas (ceci)

10-12 tomatoes (yes 10-12, read below)

3 cloves garlic (crushed, CC used spring garlic)
3 sprigs rosemary

sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

dried bread crusts (one/few per guest)

Recipe

Soak the beans and the farro SEPARATELY for at least 12 hours.

Cook them separately in lots of water until al dente. Cooking times vary. This is the hard part.

(If you have a pressure cooker, cook the beans for 10-11 minutes, basically just barely under par-boiled. You must still cook the farro separately, and skim it.)

Meanwhile, bring water to a boil, and dunk the tomatoes until they "float" (10 minutes roughly.) Pass them through the finest sieve of a food mill to get your tomato pulp.

Fry 2/3rds of the garlic; add the tomato pulp. Cook at a low heat for 30 minutes. Regular readers of the blog know the drill. Skim, baby, skim.

Add the rest of the garlic, the rosemary, salt and pepper, and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Add the beans and the farro. Cook for 15 minutes or so until the flavors "blend". You may need to add some water to replace some of the reduction.

Serve over dried bread crusts drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.