When I look back at recipes I was making three or four years ago, it makes me laugh because almost every other one seems to involve a creamy bean situation. I was eating a lot of beans. I eat fewer now, but every so often I get that sentimental craving for a big bowl of them.
Jarred beans are particularly good for these moments. They’re already cooked, so you can turn them into dinner without much thought or planning. This has become my new cba meal: blistered tomatoes, cannellini beans and a good amount of olive oil, all cooked together until the tomatoes collapse into the broth.
The tomatoes get a proper blast of heat at the beginning, which gives them some colour and brings out their sweetness. The beans then simmer gently with garlic and bay until they’re really soft – I like to squash some of the tomatoes into the liquid as they cook.
Finish the brothy beans with more olive oil, a spoonful of crème fraîche and plenty of basil. You can get some crusty bread involved too, if you like.
One thing to watch is the liquid in your jar of beans. Some are quite salty, while others have hardly any seasoning at all. Taste it first, then adjust the salt accordingly.
These brothy beans are very much a bowl-and-bread dinner. Nothing complicated, nothing that needs much from you, and very good when you can’t be bothered to make anything else.
BLISTERED TOMATO BROTHY BEANS
I seem to have gone through a period of putting beans into absolutely everything. I’m a little more restrained these days, but a bowl of hot, brothy beans with bread still gets me every time.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 400 g cherry tomatoes
- 4 fat garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 700 g jar cannellini beans
- 1 bay leaf
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
- to serve: your best extra virgin olive oil, crème fraîche, fresh basil, crusty baguette
Instructions
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Heat a good glug of olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the tomatoes and a good pinch of salt and let them sit for 10-12 minutes, shaking the pan every 2-3 minutes, until they are blistered and bursting. Add the garlic and stir it through the tomatoes for a further minute or so, to let it soften.
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Add the cannellini beans, with their stock, 400ml water, the bay leaf and a pinch of salt and black pepper to the pan. Bring the pan to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beans are ultra tender. I like to squash the tomatoes down a little bit here, too. Remove the bay leaf, then taste and adjust the seasoning, if needed.
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Serve the beans up between bowls and finish with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a spoonful of creme fraiche, a nice handful of basil leaves, and a good grind of black pepper. Eat with a crusty baguette.
Recipe Notes
A note on bean stock: you need to taste the stock of your beans. Some are salty and some are completely flavourless. If yours is flavourless you will need to be really generous with the salt, and vice versa.
I have a million bean recipes here – try another one of my favourites: Harissa Butter Beans.
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