Tuesday, January 29, 2008
This is one of the many permutations of ‘beans with greens’ that exist in many cuisines and are almost always good. This can be cooked in about 20 minutes. First thing is to boil a pot of water with a generous dose of salt and throw a few garlic cloves in there. Let these cook a few minutes to get almost soft. This something I learned from Jamie Oliver. It seasons the water and gives you soft mild garlic you can mash later and add too a pot of greens or a vinaigrette or just spread on toast with olive oil and salt.
Then I added a head of cleaned and roughly torn escarole to the boiling water and let it wilt for a few minutes. Drain everything and chop or smash the garlic. In the same dried pot, sauté some onions in olive oil, add a can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans, the garlic, some peeled chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook this for about 5 minute or so, stir in the drained escarole and mix it all up. Adjust the seasoning and add some more good olive oil if you need to. Some chili flakes do not hurt either.
I served this in small bowls garnished with a few shavings of Parmigiano cheese and hot chili flakes. With that goes some home baked rustic bread, toasted and rubbed with garlic.