From the living cookbook
White beans with sage
A pot that waits. Dried beans, onion, sage, and enough olive oil to make the broth feel like a sauce.
- Serves
- 4, with bread
- Time
- Overnight soak, then a quiet simmer
- Active
- 15 minutes
- Simmer
- 1 to 1½ hours
This is supper that does not mind if you are late. A pot of beans on the back of the stove is a kind of hospitality — it waits, it feeds whoever comes, and it is better the next day.
Dried beans, soaked overnight. Onion, garlic, sage, a bay leaf, and more olive oil than a recipe usually admits. The broth should look glossy, not thin. That is the whole sauce.
If you only have canned beans, you can still make this. It will be a shorter evening, not a lesser one.
What you need
- A heavy pot or Dutch oven
- A wooden spoon
- A bowl for soaking the beans overnight
Ingredients
The beans
The pot
To finish
Method
- 01
Soak overnight
Cover the beans with plenty of cold water in a bowl. Leave them on the counter overnight, or at least eight hours. They will swell and look almost cooked. Drain them in the morning. If you forgot, a quick soak — cover with water, boil two minutes, rest one hour, drain — will do.
- 02
Cover, and barely simmer
Put the drained beans in a heavy pot and cover with fresh water by two inches. Add the onion, garlic, bay, and half the sage. Bring to a bare simmer. You should see a few lazy bubbles, not a boil. Boiling splits the skins.
- 03
Cook until creamy
Cook gently until the beans are creamy inside, 1 to 1½ hours depending on their age. Older beans take longer. Add water if they begin to show. Stir once or twice, kindly. Taste one: it should crush easily against the roof of your mouth.
- 04
Salt late
Salt only in the last twenty minutes. Salt too early and the skins can stay tight. Start with a teaspoon, then taste the broth. A pinch of red pepper flakes now, if you want a little heat.
- 05
Finish with oil and sage
Fish out the onion and the bay. Stir in a thick pour of olive oil and the remaining sage, torn. The broth should look glossy, like a sauce, not like bean water. Taste for salt. If it tastes thin, more oil. If it tastes flat, more salt. Leave it on the back of the stove, lid ajar, until you are ready.
To serve
Warm bowls, bread for the liquor, a further thread of oil at the table. It is supper. It is also lunch the next day, cold, with lemon and more oil. A bitter green beside it does no harm.
Make ahead
Better on the second day. Keep it in the pot, covered, in the refrigerator up to four days. Reheat gently with a splash of water and more oil. It freezes well in its liquor for a month.
If you only have canned beans, rinse two 15-ounce cans and simmer 15 minutes with the same aromatics and more oil than you think. It will still be a meal. Dried is the longer kindness.
Also on the table
