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Ingredients
Directions
- Rinse beans and soak overnight (or at least 6 hours) in cold water. Drain soaking water, rinse, and put in a large pot with 3" water covering. Bring to a boil, watching carefully, and as soon as it boils reduce to a slow simmer. Skim off any foam that comes to the top. Cover and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, until beans are tender but not mushy. Drain the beans but reserve at least 2 cups of the soaking water.
- Put salted water for the pasta on to boil before preparing other ingredients; keep at a simmer until needed.
- Place olive oil, onion, and pancetta in a large skillet and heat over medium-heat, stirring frequently. When the mixture begins to sizzle, add ~1/2t salt. Continue cooking, stirring, about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the pancetta has cooked down.
- Put the pasta in the boiling water, stirring to keep it from sticking.
- Add the garlic, sage, and rosemary, stirring to comibine, and cook another 30 seconds to a minute, until the garlic just begins to smell but doesn't burn.
- Add the beans and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir the mixture to combine thoroughly, then mash half to three-quarters of the beans in the pan with a heavy spoon. If the mixture is too dry — you're going for a cream-sauce consistency — add a bit of the cooking water from the beans. Salt to taste.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain and toss with a small amount of olive oil to keep it from sticking. Serve the sauce over the pasta, topped with generous helpings of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese and freshly-ground black pepper.
Tips
- Beans. I prefer cranberry beans, my favorite bean, and they're what Marcella calls for. They're not sold everywhere, but Rainbow and Berkeley Bowl have them in bulk, and Goya sells 1- and 3 lb bags of them. They look like pinto beans, only with scarlet spots instead of brown. You can substitute cannellini (white kidney) beans with good results. Boiling the beans too vigorously will detract from the texture. You can cook the dried beans a day or two ahead and refrigerate: remove the beans from the cooking liquid to cool, but to keep them moist, put them back in the liquid once both have cooled. Fresh beans in season will be even better than dried; use 3 lb, shelled and boiled for 5 minutes, again reserving a few cups of the cooking liquid. You can use canned beans, though the taste and texture will suffer slightly. Make sure to use plain beans, like the ones from Goya, Westbrae, or Eden, and not the sweetened, salted crap Progresso and Safeway sell. I've never found canned cranberry beans, so if you see them, by all means, tell me!
- Fresh sage. The biggest thing you can do to make this dish amazing is to use fresh sage. At $1.50 for an organic bouquet, it's a great investment. If using dried sage, use 1/2t. Fresh rosemary will not have the same effect, since it dries so well, but it sure won't hurt.
- Pancetta. This makes a great veg or vegan dish if you just skip the pancetta. The beans and sage are the main flavors, so it doesn't suffer for the omission. I've tried making it with guanciale, but I like the slight meatiness of pancetta better. Avoid bacon as the smokiness will clash with the dish.
- Mincing. The sauce will be creamier, and the texture superior, if you mince the onion garlic, and pancetta quite finely.
- Pasta. Egg pappardelle will complement the dish best, but large shapes like rigatoni or penne will also work well.
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