[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]
Pantry and budget-friendly meals are at all times good to have in your cooking repertoire. This recipe, which options humble substances however standout taste, is a good instance. Beans and greens are a traditional pairing in Italian peasant delicacies (in addition to in lots of different cuisines from world wide), often called cucina povera (“poor cuisine”).
Brothy cooked-from-dried beans and wilted hearty greens like Tuscan kale or chard, which might final for a very long time within the fridge, collectively create dishes which can be easy, fast, filling, and wholesome. They will be served as a soup or stew, cooked all the way down to a drier consistency to make use of as a topping for crusty grilled bread, or, on this case, mixed with starchy pasta cooking water for a creamy, noodle-coating sauce.
Like most bean-centric dishes, you may obtain one of the best taste outcomes utilizing cooked dried beans together with the flavorful cooking liquid that canned beans fail to ship. However, you’ll be able to at all times use canned beans and store-bought inventory as a substitute, if you do not have the time or dried beans required for making a batch o’ beans from scratch.
This pasta begins with garlic and anchovies, gently cooked in olive oil with a sprinkling of dried chilies for background warmth. The anchovies give the sauce savory depth that you just will not be capable of discern within the completed dish however unequivocally make for a greater sauce as we present in side-by-side checks. A splash of white wine lends candy acidity earlier than the beans are simmered to a saucy consistency.
The dish comes along with the addition of torn-up kale, quick tubular pasta (we love paccheri for this sauce), and a wholesome ladleful of starchy pasta cooking that every one get cooked along with the beans till the greens are flippantly wilted, and the noodles are al dente and completely coated in sauce. A sprinkling of salty, funky Pecorino Romano ties every part collectively for a comforting pasta straightforward sufficient for any weeknight however scrumptious sufficient to grace a desk even on particular events.