Legumes are one of those “if you know, you know” ingredients. As in, if you know what to do with them, you’ll never stop singing their praises. And if you don’t know, this dish is a great start. It’s from Yotam Ottolenghi’s beautiful new cookbook Comfort, which is all about those plates of food we eat when we need something familiar, nourishing and – above all – tasty.
This bean dish sits alongside a cornucopia of other recipes starring all the most comforting of ingredients: pasta, potatoes, cheese, eggs and noodles. And it has a surprise inspiration.
“Source the larger butter beans, or judiones, for this, if you can,” writes Ottolenghi. “They’re softer, more buttery and much creamier than the smaller ones (which come in a tin). This dish works well as part of a mezze spread, or can be eaten as it is, with something like crumbled feta or olives on top.
“Once made, the beans keep for up to three days in the fridge: just bring them back to room temperature before serving. The crispy tomato skins are a great thing to have around as well, to add to salads and pasta dishes. The recipe comes from a restaurant called Bar Rochford in Canberra, Australia, where they’re served with fresh green beans. They keep for a week in a sealed jar.”
Ottolenghi’s butter beans with roasted tomatoes
Serves 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus cooling
Cooking time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Ingredients
500g cherry tomatoes
85ml olive oil
1 onion (150g), finely diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp thyme leaves, roughly chopped, plus a few whole thyme leaves to garnish
1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
1 fresh bay leaf
80ml dry white wine
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 700g jar of good-quality butter beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and black pepper
75g thick Greek-style yoghurt, to serve
Thick slices of sourdough (or any crusty) bread, toasted (optional), to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 210°C fan.
Toss the tomatoes with 2 tsp of the oil and spread them on a parchment-lined baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes, until the skins have loosened and the tomatoes are soft and have shrunk a little. Remove from the oven and transfer the tomatoes, along with all their juices, to a shallow bowl to cool.
Re-line the baking tray with a fresh sheet of baking parchment and reduce the oven temperature to 100°C fan.
Once cool enough to handle, pinch the skins off the tomatoes and place the skins on the lined baking tray. Return the tray to the oven for about 45 minutes, until the skins are dry and crisp, giving them a good stir a couple of times during baking. Set the skinless tomatoes aside.
Put the remaining 75ml of oil into a medium saucepan and place on a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, oregano, thyme, fennel seeds and bay leaf and cook for 10–12 minutes, until the onion has softened but has not taken on too much colour. Add the wine, simmer for 2 minutes to reduce, then add the paprika. Cook for another minute, then add the reserved tomato flesh, along with 1 tsp of salt. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes, stirring often so that the tomatoes break down. Add the beans and a good grind of pepper and stir to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes, just to warm through, then remove from the heat.
Spread the yoghurt over a serving plate and then pile the beans on top. Crumble over the dried tomato skins, finish with a sprinkling of thyme leaves and serve.
Extracted from Ottolenghi COMFORT by Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley (Ebury Press, $65). All photography by Jonathan Lovekin.
