For the first time, in all my years of community gardening, my rosemary was popping this summer. Much to my surprise, it had grown into a large, vibrant bush. This had never happened before. Last year it flat out died on me in the middle of the summer and in other years it was small, stringy and unimpressive. I have no idea what I did differently this year. Maybe it liked that I went to France for most of the summer and left it alone. The good news is I can easily replicate that situation next year. Whatever happened, I was delighted to see it upon my return.
I was inspired and happily cut off fat branches for various dishes. Right off, I made a pillowly foccacia studded with bits of the fragrant herb and then my thoughts quickly turned to beans. I really love white beans stewed slowly with garlic, rosemary and a good glug of olive oil. Luckily, I’d been gifted with a bag of Marcella beans from my favorite bean purveyor, Rancho Gordo. The Marcella bean is a variety of the classic Italian white cannellini beans and named after the illustrious Italian chef, Marcella Hazan. They are creamy, utterly delicious and a fantastic version of that bean type. While I was happy to use them, at the same time I was sad to see them go. Good food can be like that sometimes. The backstory on how these beans came to be and the origins of the name is lovely – read about it here. Unfortunately, they are currently out of stock but harvest time is coming up so I imagine they’ll be available soon. (Quantities are limited so maybe sign up for an email notification if you don’t want to miss them.)
I frequently cook beans in this manner – garlic, rosemary, olive oil – but on this particular day, I wanted something with a bit more texture. A crumb topping would fit the bill so I blitzed some stale bread in a food processor and added a little parmesan and pepper. If there’s one thing I almost always have lying about it’s stale bread and this is a good use. This time my old bread was a nutty whole grain variety, which added a nice flavor, but even an old baguette would be fine. When the beans were ready, a good handful of toasty, cheesy breadcrumbs was thrown on top for a little bit of crunch. Simple as all get out and a new way to serve an old favorite.
STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: SLOW AND EASY. Sure, there are all kinds of gadgets on the market, promising to cook beans in no time but there’s something to be said for the old ways. I’m sure Marcella would have something to add to this topic. Low and slow on the stovetop has a lot going for it: the beans consistently cook up nice and creamy, with intact skins, infused with rosemary, garlic and good olive oil. I don’t always find that to be the case with crock pots (too watery, weak flavor) and pressure cookers (uneven texture, broken skins). For this reason, especially when using a pricey heirloom bean, I also prefer an overnight soak to the quick soak method. But all of these things require some advance planning so to each their own. However you get to the end results is good; these beans are delicious and make a wonderful side dish. With the weather heading into the cooler months, fire up the stove and set a pot of beans to a slow simmer.
Eight years ago: Chocoflan
Seven years ago: Blueberry Raspberry Cobbler
Six years ago: Sweet Corn Soup
Five years ago: Bastille Day Lunch – Figgy BBQ Sauce
Four years ago: Roasted Ratatouille with Sweet Corn Polenta
Three years ago: Aunt Patti’s Cornbread
Two years ago: Machaca – Mexican Shredded Beef + Machaca Enchiladas
Last year: Fig & Goat Cheese Foccacia
ROSEMARY WHITE BEANS WITH TOASTED BREADCRUMBS
Serves 4-6 as a side dish
The amount of bread needed will depend a lot on how big the slices are. You’ll need about 2 Tablespoons of coarse crumbs so just sort of eyeball it.
for the crumb topping:
½ -1 slice of coarse stale bread, coarsely ground in a food processor (2 generous Tablespoons of crumbs)
3 Tablespoons grated parmesan
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
for the beans:
1 pound dried cannellini or Great Northern beans (I used these beautiful Marcella beans)
5 large garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
2 large fresh rosemary sprigs, about 3″ long
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- For the beans: Pick over the beans, removing any misshapen beans or grit. Rinse under cold running water.
- Put the beans in a large bowl, add cold water to cover by at least 2”, and let stand at room temperature overnight. Alternatively, for a quick soak, put the beans in a large pot, add water to cover by at least 2”, bring to a boil, remove from the heat, cover, and let soak for 1 hour.
- Drain and rinse the beans, place in a large pot and cover with 2” of cool fresh water.
- Nestle the garlic cloves and the rosemary sprigs in the beans, add the olive oil and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook slowly with a lid slightly askew until tender, about 1 – 2 hours. The beans should be tender but hold their shape and there should be a little liquid but not overly soupy. During cooking, add additional hot water if the pot becomes too dry.
- For the crumb topping: In a 12” sauté pan over medium heat, toast the breadcrumbs until lightly browned, stirring often.
- Transfer the crumbs to a small bowl to cool.
- When cooled, stir in the parmesan and pepper. Taste – if you think it needs a little salt, keeping in mind the beans have been salted, add a little. Set aside until needed.
- Finish the beans: Fish out the rosemary sprigs and discard.
- Remove the garlic cloves and place in a small bowl. Mash with a fork, return to the pot with salt and pepper and gently stir to combine.
- Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed.
- Transfer the beans to a serving dish with just enough liquid to keep the beans moist, but not soupy.
- Sprinkle the toasted breadcrumbs on top and serve hot or room temperature.
STRESSCAKE 
People will argue for days over when to salt the beans. For years I’ve cooked my beans much like you do in this recipe, because my mom always said salting the beans at the beginning of cooking meant you could cook them for days but they’d still be tough. A slight exaggeration, but still I’ve always believed it.
Well, I guess I must have been bored last week, because for some perverse reason l thought I’d try an experiment. I think it was the Franklin’s BBQ Pintos recipe I found over at The Homesick Texan, it just looked so good. That method broke the bean rules, lots of salt and spices in the soaking water and no draining and rinsing before cooking, but dang if they weren’t some well cooked beans. Now I’m wondering if that method would work with something else besides pintos. Have you tried it?
I have! And generally I like them better salted from the start too as they’re nicely seasoned throughout though in my experience it seems to work best if you know the beans are fresh. Most of the time, you can’t know if your beans are fresh or old so I tend to salt them later just to be safe. Cooks Illustrated has done extensive research on this somewhere …