Cookbook Challenge: Week 4, Beans

Recipe: Dressed cannelini beans
Cookbook: Daily Italian by Tobie Puttock

Dressed cannellini beans

Beans! I really love beans, and I would have liked to have done something more interesting than the recipe I choose, but I ran out of time this week. For some odd reason, I thought the theme this week was Greek, and I only realised it was actually beans midway through the week.

By Saturday, I still hadn’t decided on a recipe, and our Saturday was spent out in the shops on a mega mammoth Xmas shopping frenzy. By the time we arrived home, I was exhausted and really not up to doing anything terribly complicated, nor wanting to go back out for ingredients.

Doing my recipe on Sunday was out because – well, today is my birthday! And we went out to the Press Club for a massive lunch, so I knew I wouldn’t be eating dinner (blog post to come later, perhaps?).

Fortunately, when we arrived home on Saturday, I picked up Daily Italian, and the first recipe in the book was for dressed cannelini beans. Simple and easy, and I had all the ingredients at home. Done and no more thinking required.

I’m not generally a fan of cannellini beans, but these were alright! The original recipe suggested dried cannellini beans, but I substituted with canned ones for that quick and easy factor. Once dressed, the beans were tangy and tasted fresh and zingy from the herbs and chilli. While they probably wouldn’t be the star of a meal, they worked well as a side dish.

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.

Update: See a round up of everyone else’s posts at My Food Trail.

Dressed cannellini beans

Dressed cannelini beans

Adapted from Daily Italian by Tobie Puttock

6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 x 400g cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well
3 sprigs sage
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white-white vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
10 mint leaves
10 flat-leaf parsley leaves

In a small pot of water, simmer the garlic cloves until they are soft and cooked through.

Mash up the garlic, and add them to a large bowl with the cannellini beans, sage, oil, vinear, chillies, mint and parsley. Season well with salt and pepper and toss well to combine.