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Beans and other legumes

Panissa: Chickpea-Flour Pizzettes and Northern Italian Risotto

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PanissaPanissa is one of those Italian foods that defy a simple definition. In Liguria, it’s a fried version of the chickpea-flour polenta known as farinata. (For the record, Sicilians do similar things with their panelle and Provencal cuisine gets into the action with its socca.)

On restaurant menus in Rome and elsewhere, I’ve also encountered thinner cousins of panissa, with lovely toppings, and it’s a recipe for those chickpea-flour pizzettes that I want to share. I figured out a method for first cooking the batter like thick crepes, topping with mushrooms and ricotta, then crisping in the oven.

Panissa

These pizzettes are finished with dressed tomatoes and micro greens, for a pretty presentation. You and your chosen other can eat several as a meal, or dole them out, one to an eater, as a snack or appetizer.

Whether you make my unorthodox panissa or traditional panissa, it’s worth any bother because of the uniquely earthy flavor of chickpeas. If you are a gluten avoider, that’s another reason to choose dishes made with this flour.

Here’s where it gets more complicated. In the rice-growing areas of northern Italy, panissa is something else altogether: a rice, beans and sausage dish. I first encountered it in the town of Vercelli, surrounded by golden fields of rice. Half an hour after asking for the cooked-to-order specialty, we dipped into deeply satisfying bowls of rice mingled with plump cranberry beans and sausage, tinted a delicate mauve after simmering in Barbera wine.

Rice & Beans Panissa

This region’s panissa originated as a nourishing one-dish affair eaten by rice-field workers–including the mondine, women brought from all over northern Italian for the tasks of planting and weeding. It hasn’t travelled much beyond this part of Italy, but deserves a larger audience. So, in addition to Chickpea-Flour Pizzettes, I offer a recipe for the other kind of panissa: Rice, Beans and Sausage Risotto.

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Chickpea-Flour Pizzettes (Panissa) with Mushrooms and Ricotta
Prep Time
45 mins
Cook Time
45 mins
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins
 

These pizzettes are a riff on panissa and farinata, the chickpea-flour specialties from Liguria. The batter is first cooked like crepes and then crisped in a hot oven.

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish, Snack
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 6 pizzettes
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 cup chickpea flour
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil plus more for the pan
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper optional
Toppings
  • 1/2 cup chopped shallot
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 ounces shiitake caps or mixed mushrooms cut or torn in small pieces
  • 1/4 cup Marsala wine optional
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup good-quality ricotta (such as Calabro)
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
  • Cherry or grape tomatoes
  • Balsamic or quince vinegar
  • Microgreens (such as frisee, arugula or watercress sprigs)
Instructions

  1. Prepare chickpea flour batter: Place 1 cup water in a small bowl. Sift chickpea flour into it and whisk to blend well. Blend in olive oil, salt, thyme and pepper (if using). Let batter stand at room temperature or refrigerate for at least one hour.

  2. Prepare toppings: In a large skillet, sauté shallot with 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat until it starts to turn golden. Add mushrooms, cooking until they soften. Add Marsala if using and cook a few minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  3. In a small bowl, combine ricotta with Parmigiano Reggiano and a pinch of salt. Cut tomatoes in halves or quarters. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle lightly with salt.

  4. Cook pizzette crusts: Heat a crepe pan or other small heavy skillet (about 6 inches in diameter)* over medium-high heat, and brush with olive oil. Off heat, pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into the pan and swirl to cover the bottom. Cook, nudging edges with your spatula (this helps with the turning), until the top feels firm and perhaps takes on a leathery appearance, about 2 minutes. Carefully turn and cook about 1 minute. Remove to a plate and repeat with remaining batter, brushing pan with olive oil each time. The pizzettes will be a bit thicker than crepes. (At this point, proceed immediately with recipe or refrigerate crusts and toppings for a few hours.)

  5. If you have a pizza stone, place it in upper third of oven and set temperature to 425°F.

  6. Assemble pizzettes: Spread each crust with ricotta mixture. Top with sautéed mushrooms.

  7. Slide pizzettes onto hot pizza stone or a baking sheet. Cook until ricotta turns bubbly, about 10 minutes (or longer, for extra crispness).

  8. Garnish pizzettes with dressed tomatoes and microgreens. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe Notes
  • I like to use a well-seasoned carbon steel crepe pan. A small nonstick pan also works well, although the pizzettes may not brown quite as well. 
Rice & Beans Panissa
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Rice, Beans & Sausage Risotto (Panissa)
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
 

This hearty dish comes from the northern rice-growing part of Italy. Rice, beans, sausage, red wine and rosemary join forces to create its wonderful flavor. I've specified beans cooked from scratch because the cooking liquid is crucial to the quality of the dish.

Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Toni Lydecker
Ingredients
  • 1 cup dried cranberry (borlotti), kidney or pinto beans
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 cup Carnaroli or Arborio rice
  • 1 clove garlic finely chopped
  • 1 cup Barbera or other fruity red wine
  • 3 to 4 ounces cacciatorini or other cured Italian sausage cut in small pieces
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese
Instructions

  1. Place beans in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water; soak for 6 hours or as directed on the package. Drain and wash well under cold running water. Return beans to saucepan and cover with fresh water to a depth a couple of inches above the beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender, about 1 hour.*

  2. In a large, broad saucepan or deep skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion until lightly browned. Stir in rice and garlic, cooking until fragrant. Add half of wine, simmering until almost evaporated.

  3. Add beans with 3 cups of their cooking liquid. Stir in sausage, rosemary, and remaining half cup of wine. Bring to a boil. Taste broth and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer, partly covered, until rice is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

  4. Spoon risotto (AKA panissa) into shallow soup bowls, sprinkling each serving with grated cheese.

Recipe Notes

*I always cook a full pound of beans, regardless of how much I'm using in the recipe. If you do the same, the quantity of cooked beans you'll need for this dish is 2 cups, plus cooking liquid.

Minestrone, al Modo Mio

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Italian vegetable soup

I just made a potful of soup, packed with seasonal vegetables. Italians call this minestrone, a “big soup,” compared to a less ambitious minestra featuring fewer ingredients.

Pellegrino Artusi, the so-called “father of Italian cuisine,” tells an amusing but sobering story. In 1855, he found himself in the coastal city of Livorno. Entering a trattoria, he asked what kind of soup was on offer. “Che c’e di minestra?” The answer: minestrone. After dining, Artusi suffered for several days from “a severe revolution in the body,” including diarrhea.

He fled the city, swearing never to eat minestrone again–only to learn later that cholera had struck Livorno, killing the trattoria owner, and was likely the cause of his affliction. Not the soup after all, he concluded.

But perhaps the soup was at fault, given that, as it was soon discovered, cholera spreads through contaminated food or water.

We’ll never be sure about that particular soup, but Artusi’s description of how to make minestrone lives on. Root vegetables, cut small. Beans. Some kind of greens. Rice, to thicken the soup. The most important directive: Modify the soup “a modo vostro” according to the tastes of your region and the vegetables you find.

That advice still holds today. Artusi decrees that minestrone is not for delicate stomachs, but I respectfully disagree. I consider a hearty minestrone to be the healthiest of soups.

I’ve been making minestrone for 40 years, so I don’t follow a recipe. Once I’ve gathered suitable ingredients, the soup building begins. Key steps:

Lay down a flavor base. My soffritto begins with onion in olive oil. As it progresses toward golden, I dice celery, carrots, garlic, adding each as I finish. Onion and garlic can be chopped, but other vegetables should be diced small, all the same size, so they look nice and mingle well. If you have decent knife skills, it doesn’t take that long—and is not onerous, once you get some music or a podcast going.

Some cooks add small bits of pancetta at this stage but I don’t.

Keep adding vegetables such as zucchini and potatoes. I love the rhythm of preparing each ingredient as the one I’ve just added gently sautés.

Season and cover with liquid. For me, the basics are canned tomatoes I crush or puree, the liquid from dried beans I’ve cooked, and water. Many classic minestrone recipes call for meat or chicken broth, which does add depth of flavor, but I prefer letting the soup sing its vegetal heart out. At this point, I throw in a chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano rind, if I have it, to further enrich the soup.

Simmer until the ingredients are very tender, adding greens, rice or another grain, and cooked beans during the last hour of cooking. Let the soup rest overnight, refrigerated, for the flavors to marry.

borlotti

Dish up your soup. Minestrare, the root of minestra and minestrone, refers to this joyous act. Drizzle each serving with good olive oil, set a bowl of grated cheese on the table and serve it forth.

Italian vegetable soup
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Minestrone, al Modo Mio
Prep Time
2 hrs
 

This recipe makes about four quarts of soup. Use your largest pot and plan on sharing with family and friends.

Course: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: minestrone, minestra, soup, vegetables, beans, grains
Ingredients
  • 1 large or 2 medium onions
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 stalks celery
  • 3 carrots
  • Up to 4 cloves garlic
  • 2 medium potatoes peeled
  • 2 zucchini
  • 1 can (28-ounce) plum tomatoes with puree
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 piece Parmigiano Reggiano rind optional
  • 3 cups shredded kale cabbage or other greens
  • 3 cups cooked cranberry or cannellini beans plus their liquid if cooked from scratch
  • ¾ cup farro, Arborio rice or pastine
  • Best extra-virgin olive oil for garnishing, optional
  • Chopped parsley or other fresh herbs optional
  • Grated Parmigiano Reggiano or other hard Italian cheese
Instructions
  1. Finely chop onion and cook with olive oil over medium heat until golden brown. Meanwhile, cut celery and carrots in small dice. Add to saucepan, stir and reduce heat to low. Chop garlic and add to saucepan. Cook for a few minutes to release aromas.
  2. Cut potatoes and zucchini in small dice, adding to saucepan. Briefly puree tomatoes in a blender or squish between your fingers. Stir into vegetable mixture. Add water* to a depth of 2 inches above ingredients. Season with salt (about 1 tablespoon) and pepper. Add cheese rind, if using.
  3. Bring liquid to a simmer, reduce heat and barely simmer until vegetables are very tender, adding kale, beans and farro during last 45 minutes of cooking (add water as needed).
  4. Before serving, cut cheese rind in small pieces and return to soup. If you like, garnish each serving with a swirl of olive oil and/or chopped herbs, and pass a bowl of dgrated cheese.
Recipe Notes

*If you like, chicken broth can be substituted for part or all of the water. If the broth is seasoned, cut back on the amount of salt added.

Chickpea, Lentil and Farro Soups, Norcia Style

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On a fall visit to the mountainous Umbrian town of Norcia, I ordered the area’s famous lentil soup. I wasn’t expecting much. The soup was a thick,  monochromatic beige.

But the first spoonful surprised me with honest, deeply satisfying flavor. Over the coming days, I ate soup at almost every meal. Chickpea, farro, and then back to lentil. It was fall, the weather was raw and I craved these meltingly delicious, sustaining soups.

In Italy a soup is either a thick zuppa or a minestra, a mix of more clearly discernible ingredients. These soups were in the zuppa category, most decidedly.

Norcia, mid-way between Ascolo-Piceno and Spoleto, made headlines in 2016 when a powerful earthquake devastated the historic town and surrounding areas such as Castelluccio, reputed to grow the best lentils in Italy.

Researching our trip last year, we learned that the town remained a maze of unstable, scaffold-cloaked stone buildings, with reconstruction dragging along.

This was disappointing, because I had always longed to visit Norcia. I knew that the town lent its name to the word norcino, the butcher who traditionally circulated among farms each fall to kill family pigs.  It is famous for prosciutto and other cured meats, for black truffles, and for the farro, lentils and other legumes grown in and around Castelluccio.

The dear friends travelling with us agreed that Norcia merited a place on our itinerary and, intrigued by a reasonably priced Relais et Chateaux hotel called Palazzo Seneca, we decided to stay four nights.

During that time, we did lovely luxury-hotel things. We got massages in the spa, went on a truffle hunt, took a cooking lesson from the chef of the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant.

We visited Castelluccio, surrounded by snow-capped peaks looking down on greeny-gold pastures where grain and legume flowers blossom each spring.

We wandered the eerily deserted streets, listening to shop owners tell of happier years when tourists crowded the streets of Norcia to sample local cured meats and cheeses, to buy saffron, to dine on dishes lavished with black truffles.

St. Benedict was born in Norcia and we attended a twilight prayer service conducted by monks of that ancient order.

Incredibly, we were virtually the only tourists in Norcia that week.

A year later, the memory of wandering through Italy seems like a fantasy. But those comforting soups, they are still real.

Besides lentils and chickpeas from Castelluccio, I also came home with an heirloom pea variety called roveja.

 The peas’ autumnal hues range from golden to brown to dusky green. Their flavor, once cooked, takes “earthy” to a new level. They were a little much, on their own, so I added carrot, celery, tomatoes and broken tagliatelle nests to yield a more interesting soup. (Unless roveja comes your way, lentils will work fine in this recipe.)

I stuck to the essentials in making chickpea-farro soup, honoring the spirit I found in Norcia. This simplest and most savory of soups is about survival, for them and for us.

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Chickpea-Farro Soup, Norcia Style
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 30 mins
 

This zuppa from a mountainous Umbrian region puts legumes and whole grains on center stage.

Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Ingredients
  • 2 cups dried chickpeas picked over and washed
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
  • 1 garlic clove finely chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ cup farro
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper optional
  • 8 ounces mild Italian sausage cooked separately, cut in small pieces
Instructions
  1. Soak chickpeas in abundant water for at least 8 hours (or follow quick-soak method).
  2. Saute onion in olive oil until pale gold. Stir in garlic, cooking briefly.
  3. Add chickpeas, bay leaves and water (about 6 cups) to depth about 2 inches above chickpeas. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly until chickpeas are barely tender, about 45 minutes.
  4. Stir in farro and continue to cook until chickpeas and grain are meltingly tender, about 25 minutes longer. Add water as needed at any point. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  5. Cool soup to warm. Transfer one-third of mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. Roughly smash the remaining mixture with a potato masher or pastry blender, leaving some chickpeas whole. Return pureed chickpea mixture to saucepan. Stir in sausage.
  6. Reheat soup and spoon into bowls. Drizzle a thread of olive oil on top of each serving.
Recipe Notes

Variation: Substitute lentils for chickpeas. The cooking time will be shorter.

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Lentil Soup with Egg Noodles
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 10 mins
 

The lentils in this recipe are left whole, but could be partially pureed for a creamier consistency.

Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 cups French green lentils (or Roveja, wild Umbrian peas)* the kind that hold their shape when cooked
  • ½ onion
  • Several celery ends
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 medium carrots cut in small dice
  • 1 large celery rib cut in small dice
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped fine
  • 14- ounce can plum tomatoes chopped fine with puree
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 to 3 ounces tagliatelle or other thin egg noodles
  • 4 ounces dried sausage or salami cut in small cubes (optional)
  • Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. Pick over and wash lentils. Cover with water to a depth of at least 2 inches above lentils. Add onion, celery ends and bay leaves.

  2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until almost tender, about 20 minutes, adding water as necessary. Add carrots, celery, garlic and tomatoes. Continue cooking until fully tender, about 30 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

  3. Shortly before serving, stir in egg noodles and dried sausage. Simmer until noodles are tender. Drizzle a thread of olive oil over each serving.
Recipe Notes

• If you discover a source for this wild Umbrian pea variety, you are better off presoaking them in the same way as chickpeas, about 8 hours.

 

Lamb Stew with White Beans

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It’s spring, Easter and Passover are approaching, and I feel the familiar urge to cook lamb. Not the roast leg of lamb with sides that I might cook for the whole family, but a lamb and vegetable stew just for me and my husband–my bunk mate of almost 48 years and now my bunker mate during the lockdown we’re all living through.

Like many others, I’m also craving the comfort of home-cooked beans. Along with pasta, rice and toilet paper, dried beans are commodities that vanished from supermarket shelves during the first wave of pandemic panic. But they’re back and I hope we’ll never take them for granted again.

In this recipe, large chunks of lamb are slow simmered to succulence with fennel and carrots. Bacon, thyme and a healthy dose of balsamic or red wine vinegar add layers of flavor. The stew, bathed in a sauce of its own making, is spooned over seasoned white beans. It’s a restaurant-style presentation, more interesting than simply mixing beans into the stew.

Working on this recipe, I used grass-fed American lamb from my supermarket that is plentiful this time of year. Lamb stew meat, leg of lamb or lamb shoulder are all fine, and this recipe would also work with similar beef cuts.

I had saved a bag of Rancho Gordo flageolet beans from my Christmas stocking for something special and it turned out to be this dish. Flageolets are the variety used for cassoulet and they are wonderful, but any white beans will work well. If you can’t find those, lentils cooked with brown rice would make a good base for the stew.

The recipe makes about six servings. That’s more than we need for one meal, but the stew and beans reheat beautifully and–now that we’re eating three meals a day at home–we are more grateful than ever for leftovers.

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Lamb Stew with White Beans
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time
2 hrs
 

This recipe calls for a flavor base (soffritto) of onions cooked to a deep golden, enhanced with a little smoked bacon and thyme. The chunky stew is served over separately cooked white beans.

Course: Main Dish, Piatto Unico (one-dish meal)
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 3 slices thick-cut bacon or pancetta
  • 2½ pounds lamb stew meat* preferably from grass-fed lamb
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • ½ cup tomato paste
  • 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar or ½ cup red wine vinegar
  • Leaves from several thyme sprigs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs
  • 4 large carrots
  • 8 ounces cooked, seasoned flageolets or other white beans**
Instructions
  1. With kitchen shears, cut bacon crosswise in ¼-inch strips. Trim external fat from lamb chunks. Salt and pepper generously.
  2. Cook bacon over medium heat in large saucepan (Dutch oven size) until cooked through but not to crisp stage. Remove to plate with slotted spoon.
  3. Add olive oil to bacon fat. Over medium-high heat, sear lamb until browned on all sides. Remove lamb to plate.

  4. Add onion to pan and cook, stirring, until golden verging on brown. Stir in garlic and cook a few seconds. Stir in tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, 1 cup water, thyme and bay leaves. Simmer until heated through, about 5 minutes.

  5. Return bacon and lamb to pan. Simmer, partially covered, until just tender, about 40 minutes. Add more water as necessary for a saucy consistency.
  6. Meanwhile, cut fennel in thin wedges (leave stem end intact so they will not fall apart). Angle cut carrots in short, thick chunks. Add fennel and carrots to saucepan. Stir well and simmer until cooked through, about 30 minutes.
  7. To serve: Spoon beans into shallow soup/pasta bowls; 1 cup is about right. Center lamb stew with vegetables on top; ladle a little of sauce on each serving.

Recipe Notes

* I happened to find "lamb stew meat" already cut up. If you do not, most cuts of lamb will work for this recipe: leg, shoulder or shank. 

** I usually cook a full pound of beans and use the remainder for other meals.

 

 

 

Fettunta (Bruschetta) with Cranberry Beans and Tuscan Kale

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Toasted bread, rubbed with cut garlic cloves and anointed generously with olive oil, is known most places as bruschetta (pronounced bru SKET ta, please). Except. If you are in Tuscany, the word for this treat is fettunta, or fett’ unta, meaning “oiled slice.”

My first memory of fettunta goes back to a simple Sunday supper many years ago. After a long country walk, our friend Elena toasted bread on a hand-held rack before rubbing the slices with garlic and ladling on warm white beans. At the table, we seasoned the dish to our own taste, adding salt, pepper and dense, peppery olive oil.

As with most simple dishes, the ingredients must be the best. Elena used coarse unsalted Tuscan bread. The beans had been simmering with sage all afternoon. The oil had been pressed from local olives.

Making fettunta, as I have for forty years, I try to honor those values. The version shown here is made with fat cranberry beans, grown in Maine, that came in a recent

CSA farm market basket.  I used whole-grain bread from Iggy’s, our favorite Cambridge bakery. For more vitamins and flavor, I added a layer of finely cut, blanched kale.

It’s possible to embellish more. For one make-your-own fettunta dinner, we laid out prosciutto and other cured meats, diced tomatoes and raw sweet onion slices in addition to beans and greens.

The only constant for fettunta is the ritual of toasting good bread and rubbing with raw garlic. And, of course, finishing with good olive oil.

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Fettunta (Bruschetta) with Cranberry Beans and Tuscan Kale
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 

This makes a perfectly balanced--and perfectly delicious--meal. 

Course: Appetizer, Main Dish
Cuisine: Tuscan
Ingredients
  • 1 small bunch Tuscan kale (laminate variety) or curly-leaf kale
  • 4 cups white beans with sage and garlic see following recipe
  • Sea salt or kosher salt
  • Best-quality extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 large slices white or whole-grain rustic bread
  • 2 garlic cloves peeled and halved
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions

  1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400°F. Cut off tough kale stem ends. Cut leaves (including stems) cross-wise in shreds.

    2) Heat beans over low heat in a medium saucepan; season to taste with salt. Meanwhile, fill a medium saucepan with cold water; bring to a boil. Cook kale, reducing heat if it becomes too fierce, until stems are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain; season with salt.

    3) Toast bread until crisp but not browned. While still warm, rub both sides with garlic clove halves.

    4) To serve: Place toasted bread on plates. Ladle beans and a little of the cooking liquid on top. Spread seasoned kale over each slice. Season with pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil; pass a small pitcher of olive oil at the table for diners to add more if they like. 

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Cranberry Beans with Sage and Garlic
Prep Time
10 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 
Course: Ingredients, Side Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
  • 1 pound cranberry beans or other beans*
  • 1 large sprig fresh sage
  • 2 cloves garlic lightly crushed
  • sea salt or kosher salt
Instructions
  1. Soak beans in a large saucepan for several hours or overnight. Alternatively, bring to a simmer and turn off heat. Let stand for 1 hour.
  2. Drain beans and wash under running water. Return beans to saucepan and cover with fresh cold water to a depth of several inches above beans. Add sage and garlic.
  3. Bring bean mixture to a boil; reduce heat to a bare simmer, partially cover, and cook until beans are tender but still hold their shape, 1 hour or more. Season lightly with salt.
Recipe Notes

* The same method can be used for other dried beans, including white cannellini beans, chickpeas, and various kinds of heirloom beans; Tuscany’s prized zolfini beans require longer soaking, about 12 hours, as well as longer cooking, up to 4 hours.