Bowtie Pasta with Mushroom Sauce
Easy
Bird Style Beans / Fagioli all'Uccelletto
To me, fagioli all’uccelletto is simply Tuscany’s version of baked beans that are traditionally cooked in a flask for hours on an open hearth. The term “bird style” implies that the same ingredients are used to cook small game birds. The modern version is to bake the beans in a bean pot or other heavy oven pot.
Tuscan cooks start with fresh, creamy white cannellini beans, a luxury that eliminates the soaking process, but dried beans are our alternative. Start the process the night before.
SERVES 8
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried cannellini or Great White Northern beans
- 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 5 tofresh sage leaves, minced
- 6 tablespoons tomato paste
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- Ingredients
Directions
- Cover the beans with cold water and allow them to soak overnight. Drain the beans, place them in a pot, cover them with fresh water and cook them until the skins easily slip off when pressed between your fingers. Drain the beans, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid, and set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan, add the sage and cook over very low heat for 5 minutes. Stir in the beans and tomato paste dissolved in the reserved cooking liquid. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper and serve the beans with a drizzle of olive oil over the top.
This recipe was featured on Season 21 - Episode 2122.
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Comments
Kris
I stumbled on the word ‘uccelletto’ in reference to beans and googled it. When I saw that your site had a recipe, I checked it out (and printed it). I love your show!
I was double checking for my grocery list … you call for 3 cloves crushed garlic (yum!) but give no info in the directions what to DO with them. I’m guessing you cook them with the sage, but you might want to SAY that.