I am sitting here in my new office, looking out of my big beautiful window and thinking about nothing much of anything. I want to write but i am in the afternoon slump. The sun has been shining for a week straight, it is cold and beautiful out, the chicken coop is clean and the girls are happy. Timmy is living outside (his choice not mine), Mr B and cats are living on my lap and all is well at the Green Bean
I did find out 2 things today that i like and want to share.
- January 26th is Chinese New Year and it is the year of the OX! I am an OX! this should bode well for me i think. it only happens every 12 years.
- This is also apparently the year of the bean. I got this recipe from The Splendid Table: YUM! I am going to use Cranberry Beans.
Warm Mixed Bean Salad with Pancetta
Excerpted from The New England Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Town and Country, Land and Sea, Hearth and Homeby Brooke Dojny. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted with permission from from The Harvard Common Press.
Serves 4
Because cooked dried beans take so well to a variety of seasonings, chefs love to play around with them. This delectable warm bean salad is based on the inspired creation of a chef at one of my favorite Connecticut Italian restaurants, Centro, in Fairfield.
Roman beans are a large, relatively soft-textured bean used extensively in Italian cooking. They are pretty widely available in New England as well as around the rest of the country, but if you can’t find them, the ubiquitous kidney bean will do just fine as a substitute.
Pancetta is Italian bacon that has been cured with salt and spices, but is not smoked. It is available in Italian markets and supermarkets.
Note: This salad is flavored rather subtly with garlic. For a more assertive garlic flavor, mince one or two of the cooked cloves and stir them into the finished salad.
- 1/3 cup (1-1/2 ounces) diced pancetta or thick-sliced bacon
- 6 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed until flat (see Note)
- 1 10-ounce package frozen lima beans, cooked and drained
- 1-1/2 cups drained canned Roman or kidney beans
- 1-1/2 cups drained canned black beans
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1 large bunch arugula
- 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley, plus sprigs for garnish
- 1 lemon, cut in 4 wedges
Cook the pancetta in 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over low heat until crisp and any fat is rendered, about 10 minutes. Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and reserve. Pour the grease out of the pan but do not wash the pan.
Add the remaining 6 tablespoons of oil and the garlic to the same skillet. Cook over low heat until the garlic turns a pale golden brown, watching carefully so it doesn’t scorch, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic with tongs, leaving the oil in the pan.
Add the lima beans, Roman beans, and black beans to the garlic oil in the skillet, raise the heat to medium-high, and toss gently until heated through, about 4 minutes. Add the pancetta and lemon juice and stir gently to combine. Season with the black pepper and salt to taste. (The salad may need no salt as the pancetta or bacon is salty.)
Spread the arugula out on a serving platter or individual plates. Spoon the warm beans over the greens and sprinkle with the parsley. Garnish with lemon wedges and parsley sprigs and serve.
