Beans like these should be served in individual bowls, with a ladle or two of stock per person, and topped with something like confit duck leg, unctuous pork belly or pan-fried salmon you know, things that can be easily pulled apart with a spoon. It’s the kind of side I like to gorge on, without bothering to think of additional vegetables to go with it: the bacon, persillade (a dry mixture of finely chopped parsley and garlic) and diced tomatoes really bring the beans to life. That said, the ‘alongside’ ideas below could be rather good (although the quantity of haricots assumes those sides will be light).
As with all the dried bean recipes, to save time you could soak and cook the beans in advance, or use tinned versions (although these won’t be quite as tasty). When you’re nearly ready to serve, simply begin the recipe at the point when the bacon is added.
Ingredients
- 350 g dried haricot, coco de Paimpol or flageolet beans
- 10 g butter
- ½ onion, finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves, 3 peeled and left whole, 1 crushed
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cloves
- 5 thyme sprigs
- 100 g smoked lardons
- 15 stems flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
- 3 large tomatoes, cut into 1–2 cm dice
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Put the dried beans in a bowl and cover them with 3 times their volume of cold water. Soak for 8–10 hours, then drain.
- Melt the butter in a medium-large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3–4 minutes, until softened and sweetened. Add the whole garlic cloves and cook for 90 seconds more, then tip in the beans, bay, cloves, thyme and 1.4 litres water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 1½ hours, or until the beans are tender and cooked through but still have a little bite. Now add the lardons, season with salt and simmer gently for 15 minutes longer.
- Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid, then return them to the saucepan. Stir in the crushed garlic, chopped parsley and the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Return much of the cooking liquid back to the beans – about 1 ladle per person, plus another couple for the pot check the seasoning, then divide the beans and broth between individual bowls. Drizzle each portion with olive oil.