The other night Senor and I went with Sister & Beau to the very good Da Gianni Trattoria in Annandale. Great food. And accompanying my delicious lamb was a very fine, very simple white bean & tomato number that I kept yearning for later on. As you know, round these parts we love anything with a pulse - but unlike lots of bean dishes this one was zingy, light and fresh. So I had a shot at replicating it a few days later, and while mine wasn’t exactly as good as the restaurant’s, it was near enough to get the compliments we kitchen kids secretly crave …
Happily, I was able to use some of the slow-roasted tomatoes I had already made (from the home-grown glut, you understand *preen*). You could use canned cannellini beans but one of the best things about this dish was the only-just-tender, firm texture of the beans, and I reckon canned ones could go a bit slushy. So I say live dangerously, do the soaking thing and the result will be much better. I used whatever white dried beans were in the pantry (since I solved my bean dilemmas of yore I have given up caring what the difference may be between navy, cannellini, haricot & so on).
- 1 cup dried white beans
- 4 slow-roasted tomatoes (there’s a bit here on slow-roasting - easypeasy, but takes time)
- 6 anchovies, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- juice ½ lemon
- 1 bunch chives, finely chopped (if you use garlic chives, skip the garlic above)
- 4 basil leaves, cut into fine ribbons
- 1 slug best quality olive oil
- salt & pepper
1. Soak the beans overnight, drain and cook in boiling water until just tender. Drain & cool.
2. Chop the tomatoes as finely as possible without turning to mush.
3. Ditto with the anchovies.
4. Gently toss all ingredients together, adjusting the balance of oil, lemon & salt as you go. Done, and delicious.
Don’t get me wrong, I love tofu. In good Thai and Japanese restaurants, or when somebody skilled cooks it for me. Agedashi tofu is one of my favourite things in the world. And at our favourite Thai, the beloved Ploy, there are a couple of tofu dishes to die for - one stir-fried tofu with bean sprouts, and the other a divine larb tofu salad.
I dried and fried the tofu cubes first, then drained them on kitchen paper - then did the rest of the stirfry and then tossed the tofu back in at the end with the fish sauce and basil. The result? Pretty damn fine! So here is the befuddled recipe, which can obviously be mixed and matched and altered as you wish.
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