Tuscan Beans in Tomato Ragu

Kenichi, you're probably going to find the following ode to Tuscan cuisine gastrically distressing:

O white buttery bean,
Cloaked in velvet rich tomatoes,
How I love thee!
Creamy on my tongue,
Aromatic to my nose,
Warming to my toes,
Such splendor! Such fiber! Such all-ensuing Grace!
I could eat thee with polenta day and night
and be content.
At least
for one or two
more days.

Okay, that was poetically distressing, as well. These beans are worthy of greater verse, so delicious were they in my mouth!

Tonight I made Gourmet magazine's recipe for Tuscan Beans in Summery Tomato Ragu, with the small substitutions of fennel stalk for celery (bleh, celery) and rosemary for thyme (someone's husband took all of the thyme for his doctor bag...an aromatic to revive all of those patients in stays? Very odd). The house filled with the heartwarming aroma of hot tomatoes, garlic, and herbs, and the buttery vapors of stovetop polenta. I swear this ragu has umami, what with it's luscious mouth-feel and taste: just the right amount of salty, with the right amount of rich, and all the conscience-quelling righteousness of vitamin rich tomatoes and fiber rich beans. It's also incredibly cheap and so filling. I used all organic ingredients and I can't imagine it cost me more that $.25 per serving. (And there are a lot of servings.) Oh dried beans how thou are the sustenance of frugal gods!

Seriously though, the dried bean is grossly under-appreciated by the majority of Americans. Canned beans are easy, sure, but you're paying the same amount for one pound of organic dried beans as you are for one can of cooked beans. And a pound of dried beans yields a lot more fruit. Plus, protein, fibre, and the lovely feeling of being so domestically savvy that you can create gourmet goodness from something as unprepossessing as a little, withered legume. I usually cook up a big batch and then freeze the beans in bags or tupperware. Now when I want hummus or a quick meal, it's defrost, fiddle with, and enjoy!

I know that (rude) people will cite the various gastrointestinal distresses that bean consumption causes, and these claims are true. Don't eat beans every day for 5 days if you don't want, let's just say, easy passage and your own built-in wind power system. But eaten in small amounts, beans are heavenly and healthy, especially when smothered in some sort of delicious sauce or whipped up with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt (for hummus) or olive oil, cumin, oregano, and sofrito (for refried beans). I even toss pasta with white beans, adding some salty anchovies, olives, and lemon zest for quick flavor.

I know I'll probably be regretting my indulgence after the fifth consecutive lunch of bean ragu, but for now I praise the bean for filling my belly and warming my insides, in only the way that a truly yummy dinner can.