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Anchovy, Sage and Beans, two ways
Jun. 24th, 2021 12:25 pmI haven't been doing a lot of life posts or fic posts lately, for which there are reasons (life: overwhelming; fic: absence thereof) but apparently I can still find time to scribble down what I had for lunch.
I've been making variations on this since I was a student, and the pandemic has reminded me how much I love cooking with beans and pulses (we had a storecupboard full of them in March 2020, in case we had to isolate at home and couldn't get to the shops, and neither Sam nor I like waste, so we had to come up with ways to use them). It's a great one to keep in mind for camping trips, too - the ingredients are reasonably portable, no fancy equipment is required, and it can be made as easily on a tiny gas stove as on a cooker at home.
Serves 2
Roughly chop four fat cloves of garlic and cook them very gently in a couple of good glugs of olive oil. Once the garlic begins to fizz (don't let it colour; lift it off the heat for a few moments if it's going too crazy, and if necessary add another dash of oil to calm things down), drop in 8-10 anchovy fillets, and allow them to slowly separate out into chunks.
Meanwhile, roughly chop a generous fistful of fresh sage. Once the anchovies are melting into the oil, add the sage, and cook for a further two minutes, stirring gently.
Drain and rinse two 400g cans of butterbeans and add to the sage and anchovy mixture. Stir through until the beans are evenly coated, and add a few good grinds of black pepper. (No salt necessary, with the anchovies.)
At this point you have a choice. Either keep the beans on a low heat, allow them to warm through, and serve as they are with a squeeze of lemon and maybe some salad leaves - or add 300g passata to the pan, turn up the heat, and allow to bubble for 10-15 minutes until slightly reduced, then serve in warmed bowls with bread.
A few stray thoughts:
I've been making variations on this since I was a student, and the pandemic has reminded me how much I love cooking with beans and pulses (we had a storecupboard full of them in March 2020, in case we had to isolate at home and couldn't get to the shops, and neither Sam nor I like waste, so we had to come up with ways to use them). It's a great one to keep in mind for camping trips, too - the ingredients are reasonably portable, no fancy equipment is required, and it can be made as easily on a tiny gas stove as on a cooker at home.
Serves 2
Roughly chop four fat cloves of garlic and cook them very gently in a couple of good glugs of olive oil. Once the garlic begins to fizz (don't let it colour; lift it off the heat for a few moments if it's going too crazy, and if necessary add another dash of oil to calm things down), drop in 8-10 anchovy fillets, and allow them to slowly separate out into chunks.
Meanwhile, roughly chop a generous fistful of fresh sage. Once the anchovies are melting into the oil, add the sage, and cook for a further two minutes, stirring gently.
Drain and rinse two 400g cans of butterbeans and add to the sage and anchovy mixture. Stir through until the beans are evenly coated, and add a few good grinds of black pepper. (No salt necessary, with the anchovies.)
At this point you have a choice. Either keep the beans on a low heat, allow them to warm through, and serve as they are with a squeeze of lemon and maybe some salad leaves - or add 300g passata to the pan, turn up the heat, and allow to bubble for 10-15 minutes until slightly reduced, then serve in warmed bowls with bread.
A few stray thoughts:
- If you're taking the passata route, then dried sage is fine if you don't have fresh. Use 1-2 tsp, or to taste. Thyme and/or oregano will also work fine.
- There's nothing to stop you pre-cooking a batch of dried butterbeans, if that's your preference - I think the texture is nicer, if I'm totally honest, but the point of using the tinned version is ease and speed.
- Most white beans are fine with this if butterbeans are for some reason unavailable - I've done it with cannellini, haricot beans, or just a mix of whatever's in the cupboard.
- It's possible to turn the passata version into something slightly fancier (a dinner, rather than a lunch?) by adding chorizo. Fry it off first of all, in a dry pan if at all possible, or with the barest minimum of olive oil. Lift it out with a slotted spoon, allow the fat to cool slightly, then add a little more olive oil, then the garlic, and proceed as above. Add the chorizo back in immediately before adding the beans, use an extra 100g of passata (depending on how much chorizo went in there) and allow to bubble uncovered, very gently, for an hour or so, to let the flavours permeate and intensify.
- You could throw in a handful of black olives, or some chopped capers (the latter work better with the version without tomato sauce), or even a pinch of chilli flakes.
- If I'm making it in winter, I've been known to put a couple of glugs of red wine into the tomato sauce, to make it richer.
