Magic beans: the pantry staple that does what it says on the tin – and more

Leaving a pack of beans somewhere on the kitchen counter is no guarantee that I’m going to remember to soak them. I need to put them near the front of the counter with a sticky note attached, or right in the middle of the kitchen table. Even then I might forget, which isn’t the end of the world because there are tins in the cupboard – two borlotti, two butter, one baked and three cannellini – reassuring me that a meal is minutes away. Seconds, in fact, if I am on my own.

That’s because hot beans on toast – any beans, with loads of black pepper – is one of my preferred fast things to eat. However, if I have more than just myself to feed, I can trim the most basic pasta and bean recipes down from 20 minutes to about 12 by subbing the onion and celery for two cloves of garlic, mashing with a fork rather than blending, and using the smallest pasta in the cupboard. Felicity Cloake’s excellent, tomato-rich pasta and beans can also be speeded up by cooking the pasta in with the soup. Another recipe that can be easily adapted for tinned beans, and may be one of my top 10, is a deeply comforting Roman-inspired white bean and greens stew, which can be served alone or varied for a pumpkin version.

It wasn’t, however, a note or a strategic table position that reminded me to soak this week. It was a group of seven-year-olds at an event just up the road at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that I had the slightly anarchic pleasure of attending. Our focus was water, but of course that brought us to food and what we should be eating. “Beans,” shouted one of the kids, much more helpful and succinct than the grownups’ plan to talk about nutrition, health, climate change, biodiversity and food security, all of which are dependent on us shouting about and eating more beans. My dress still wet from a wayward demo about watering plants, I arrived home and put half a kilo of white beans to soak. I also remembered to use my now-beloved pressure cooker (now that I think about it, I should probably leave that at the front of the counter, too).

The brilliant thing about white and other beans is that if you soak and simmer them for long enough, with a couple of whole cloves of garlic, a sprig of sage, salt (it is a myth that it toughens beans) and three tablespoons of olive oil, they are effectively soup by the end of the cooking. Alternatively (with a few mashes and maybe a spoonful of mustard), they make a good side to go with sausages. The other thing about having a pan (or plastic box) of cooked beans is that they can be kept in the fridge for up to a week and you can pull out a ladleful or two as needed. Mixed with tuna, sliced onion and masses of parsley, topped with Ottolenghi’s mashed garlic, or blended with olive oil, lemon juice, maybe tahini and certainly salt to make a tasty and speedy dip – as a friend pointed out the other day, the season for dips is nearly upon us. How good it feels to be full of beans.

TV dinner | I have been making a fried bread omelette (a friend suggested I should call it fried breggy). In short, fry domino-sized pieces of bread in a good amount of butter, pour over three beaten and seasoned eggs, then cook until done. Best eaten from a plate balanced on the knee, with a shake of hot sauce, while watching road rage expand into a tragicomedic feud in Beef.

Unexpected item in bagging area | I am unfaithful to salad dressings, and always looking for a better one. Lately, that has meant a bit of honey in with the olive oil, mustard, lemonandvinegar mix, which involves a teaspoon, a sticky jar and a dribble along the counter. That was until I bought a bottle of Thun honey vinegar. I am also keen on rice flour – more about that next month.

What I read this week | Free to download as a pdf, the FAO’s pulses book is a marvellous resource. Along the same lines, only with a bonus of 180 great recipes, Jenny Chandler’s book Pulse is an illustrated guide with exhaustive advice on how to cook legumes. Not bean-related is Edible Economics, in which hungry and witty economist Ha-Joon Chang uses 17 ingredients both to illustrate economic principles, and make them fascinating, imperative and delicious at the same time.

Drooling over | I travelled to the UK last week, so I brought a copy of Feast magazine back to Rome with me. I want to make almost everything in that Irish-themed issue, especially Ottolenghi’s barmbrack (above), which includes fruit soaked in tea (he suggests Barry’s, but I’m hoping Yorkshire will do) and Hawaij spice mix. Sadly, I was too rushed to buy the Terry’s chocolate mint I spotted at the airport’s duty-free shop, so have been wondering ever since if it’s as good as my beloved normal chocolate orange.