Slow Food: Butter Beans in Tomato Sauce-Fasulje te medhaja ne sos domate
Fall is finally here in Rome and all I crave is a bowl of warm comfort food. These giant beans do the trick! Also known as Gigantes, Great Northern Beans, Corona Beans, or in Albania/Kosovo: Fasulje (Beans are a staple there). Because of the size, they take quite some time(read: long a*$ time) to boil, so I use a rice cooker to save my sanity/patience. It does require an overnight soak! If you have time to binge Netflix, you have time to put beans in a bowl of water.
They work as a side dish or a lazy lunch, and it is a vegetarian/vegan/kosher/gluten free friendly recipe! I like to make a pot over the weekend and then have them through the week because each time you heat them up they get just a little bit better :)
Ingredients
250 grams/ 1 3/4 cups giant white beans
one vegetarian bouillon cube (Knorr or Maggi or Kub Or or one heaping Tablespoon of Vegeta)
one bay leaf
Two tablespoons of olive oil
one small carrot, chopped into small cubes
one stick of celery, chopped into small cubes
one small onion, chopped into small cubes
one 400 ml/14 oz can of crushed tomato (Love Mutti for this recipe!)
Directions
Soak the beans overnight in around 5-6 cups of water. The next day, rinse the beans through and toss any that look odd or didn’t plump up.
In a rice pot, add 6 cups of fresh water and start cooking. After 30 minutes, add one cup of water and the bouillion cube and the bay leaf. At the one hour mark, separately start cooking the carrot, celery and onion in the olive oil on medium heat. You want to cook down the vegetables before you throw them in the pot, yes, you could throw them in the pot uncooked, but you would miss out on a whole level of flavor. Once this has reduced after 8 minutes, throw them in the ricepot with the crushed tomato and another cup of water. I usually just fill the can with water and throw in the leftover bits.
Now leave the beans on cook for about another hour giving the occassional stir. Done.