Cannellini beans – on the side

This was one half of our dinner last night. The other half were pork chops, but I think we over-cooked them. So this post is just about the half that worked – the cannellini bean half.

These beautiful beans are cooked up with capsicum and spinach, and are a great accompaniment to meat. They’d be very much at home in a BBQ environment as a side dish. I also had them for lunch the following day, with some extra spinach leaves thrown in.

Recipe

This is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. The beans fed two adults for dinner (as a side) with enough leftovers for me to have as lunch the following day. Is a nice, soft and gentle sort of dish – some kids might dig it.

Ingredients

2 or 3 rashers pancetta (or bacon) roughly chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion finely chopped
1 large red capsicum, deseeded and finely chopped
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
A few fresh bay leaves (or dried works too)
1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Small bunch spinach leaves, roughly chopped
Optional – could add some chopped red chilli if you like some heat

Fire engine red caps

What to do

Fry up: heat a drizzle of olive oil in a fry pan, and cook up your chopped pancetta for a couple of minutes on a high heat. Stir in the chopped onion and capsicum, then back off the heat and cook for about 5 – 10 minutes. You want the vegies to be quite soft.

Herb up: add the chopped rosemary and bay leaves to the pan, giving it a good stir.

Bean up: next put the white beans in, along with 350ml of water. Stir it up, and cook on a low-medium heat for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it and add more water if it starts to look too dry. You want it to be slightly soupy once it’s finished cooking.

Spinach up: at the end of cooking, add in the spinach leaves and cook until they’ve wilted. You’re done.