Cheesy White Bean-Tomato Bake

Published March 19, 2023

Cheesy White Bean-Tomato Bake
John Kernick for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
15 minutes
Rating
4(16,395)
Comments
Read comments

For those of you who love lasagna's edges, where sticky tomato meets crisp cheese, this whole dish is for you — even the middle. A tube of tomato paste here mimics the deep flavors of sun-dried tomato. Frying a few generous squeezes caramelizes the tomato's sugars and saturates the olive oil, making a mixture that's ready to glom onto anything you stir through it. Here, it’s white beans, though you could add in kale, noodles, even roasted vegetables. Then, all that’s left to do is dot it with cheese and bake until it’s as molten or singed as you like. Serve with bread and a bitter-green salad.

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

Advertisement


Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • ¼cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3fat garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 3tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2(15-ounce) cans white beans (such as cannellini or Great Northern) or chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • ½cup boiling water
  • Salt and black pepper
  • pound mozzarella, coarsely grated (about 1⅓ cups)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

489 calories; 22 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 12 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 50 grams carbohydrates; 11 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 24 grams protein; 1001 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 475 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Fry the garlic until it’s lightly golden, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste (be careful of splattering) and fry for 30 seconds, reducing the heat as needed to prevent the garlic from burning.

  2. Step 2

    Add the beans, water and generous pinches of salt and pepper and stir to combine. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top, then bake until the cheese has melted and browned in spots, 5 to 10 minutes. If the top is not as toasted as you’d like, run the skillet under the broiler for a minute or 2. Serve at once.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

4 out of 5
16,395 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

It’s so worth it in a recipe where beans are the major ingredient, to use dried beans instead of canned one. Dried beans have a lovely firm texture and great taste. Buy some dried beans, rinse and dump what you need for your recipe into big saucepan of cold water and let sit overnight. Drain the water, add fresh water and simmer until tender. If you find you have a few too many cooked beans, you can freeze the extra in baggies to add to soups, chili etc.

I doubled the tomato paste and garlic and added a chopped yellow onion, drained/chopped San Marzano tomatoes, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Delicious!

Would recommend upping the amount of tomato paste slightly to enhance the flavor!

One of my go to apps!! So delicious and simple!

Far far far too much olive oil. Just swimming in it. A couple of tablespoons would be enough. Definitely needed some extra flavor like lots of the other posts have said.

I've made this often. Last night, I forgot about it while preparing salad, etc. After 30 min. in 475 oven, pulled it out, thinking I'd ruined it. It was fantastic and more like it's nickname "pizza beans" than ever. Hard to cut, I used kitchen scissors, but worth it!

Private comments are only visible to you.

or to save this recipe.