Beans and pasta aren’t exactly luxury foods – they’re both pretty cheap and they’re what you might make a meal of if you’re trying to stretch your budget until payday. But these two foods are also staples of vegetarian cooking because they’re hearty and incredibly versatile, and if you put them in a dish with some nicer ingredients, what you get is an elegant meal that just so happens to be meat-free. That’s where today’s recipe comes in: this is technically a French beurre blanc sauce, which means it’s made from butter, vinegar, wine, and shallots. And while that might sound like it’d be difficult to cook up, when we decided to adapt this recipe from the New York Times we found that it was not just really tasty but also surprisingly easy to make. So here it is, if you’re intrigued.
To make this, you’ll need:
- A 15-ounce can of cannellini beans
- 3 Massel 7’s Chicken-Style bouillon cubes
- White wine
- White wine vinegar
- A shallot
- Butter
- Small-shaped pasta
- Parmesan cheese
Start by dissolving the bouillon cubes in 3 cups of boiling water, then draining the beans and adding them to this broth. Let this mixture simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, finely dice the shallot and place it in a pot along with 1/4 cup of wine, 1/4 cup of vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of butter. Simmer everything over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, and every so often move the pot around (but don’t stir) to keep these ingredients from burning. Remove the pot from the stove as soon as the 15 minutes are up.
Once the beans have plumped up in the broth, add in a cup of pasta and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, until it’s thoroughly cooked.
Then pour the sauce over the pasta and mix it in.
Now you can serve up your pasta with a sprinkling of pepper and some grated Parmesan on top.
Who knew that all it took to spruce up some pasta and beans was a little bit of wine and fancy vinegar? And it doesn’t even take much effort – besides chopping the shallot, all you have to do is measure and pour a few different ingredients. You can brag to all your friends about your French cooking skills, and only you’ll know just how simple this dish is. So what’s your excuse for not trying it out?