Name: Tuscan White Bean Stew
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 5 tbsp olive oil, plus more to finish; 2 onions, finely chopped; 3 carrots, diced; 3 celery sticks, diced; 1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled and sliced; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 1 tsp chilli flakes; 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary; 2 bay leaves; 3 x 400 g tins cannellini beans, drained; 1 litre vegetable stock; 1 ½ tsp fine sea salt; ¾ tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 200 g cavolo nero, stems stripped and leaves shredded; 2 tbsp lemon juice; 4 thick slices sourdough, toasted and rubbed with garlic; 3 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

Tuscan White Bean Stew

Cannellini beans, kale and a whole head of garlic softened into a broth thickened by mashing a ladleful of the beans. Nothing in it is expensive and it tastes like it took all day.

55 min total Serves 6 servings Easy

Before You Start

Mash a ladleful. It is the difference between soup and stew and it takes thirty seconds.

A whole head of garlic. Long simmering takes all the aggression out of it.

Finish with your best olive oil off the heat — heat destroys what you paid for.

Making Tuscan White Bean Stew

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Heat the oil in a large heavy pan and cook the onions, carrots and celery over medium heat for 15 minutes, until soft and sweet. Do not rush the soffritto; it is most of the flavour.
Add all the sliced garlic and cook 3 minutes, stirring, until fragrant and pale gold.
Stir in the tomato purée, chilli flakes and rosemary and cook 2 minutes until the purée darkens.
Add the beans, stock, bay leaves, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer.
Cook, part-covered, for 25 minutes.
Lift out a ladleful of beans with a little liquid, mash them to a paste, and stir them back in. The stew will thicken noticeably within a minute.
Add the cavolo nero and simmer 10 minutes more, until tender.
Fish out the bay leaves, stir in the lemon juice, and taste for salt.
Serve over the garlic toast with parsley and a hard drizzle of good olive oil.

Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.

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Why the Method Works

The thickening is the trick and it costs nothing: a ladleful of beans crushed and stirred back in releases their starch and turns a thin broth into something that coats a spoon, with no flour, cream or blender. A whole head of garlic sounds like a lot and is not — simmered for forty minutes it loses all its harshness and turns sweet. The Parmesan rind, if you have one and are not keeping it vegan, is the other free source of savour.

Storage and Reheating

Refrigerated for 5 days and better on day two. Freezes for 3 months; add the kale fresh on reheating.

Changing the Recipe

An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Serving Tuscan White Bean Stew

Garlic toast
A glass of Chianti
A sharp green salad

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Ciabatta, Focaccia di Recco, Garlic Bread.