Parmesan Braised Beans With Olives
Updated Jan. 24, 2024
- Total Time
- 6½ hours
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 2 hours 20 minutes, plus at least 4 hours’ soaking
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 1pound dried beans (any mix of white, brown and black beans), rinsed
- 1 to 3Parmesan rinds
- 2fresh thyme sprigs
- 2 to 3dried or fresh bay leaves
- Salt
- ⅓cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 1cup loosely packed fresh rosemary and sage leaves
- Unsalted butter (optional), at room temperature
- Oil-cured black olives, pitted (see Tip)
- Coarsely grated Parmesan
- Freshly ground black pepper
For the Beans
For Serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Soak the beans in plenty of water so they have room to expand, at least 4 hours (and up to 12 hours) in the refrigerator.
- Step 2
Drain and place the soaked beans in a large (5- to 8-quart) pot. Cover with at least 2 inches of water. Add the Parmesan rinds, thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tender, 2 to 4 hours. You may have to add more water during the cooking process. The beans should be very tender and somewhat brothy. A few minutes before they are done, remove and discard the thyme sprigs, bay leaves and rinds, then crush some of the beans against the side of the pot to thicken the broth. Season with salt to taste. Serve immediately, or cool and refrigerate. (The beans can stay up to 5 days in their liquid.)
- Step 3
Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium. Add a single sage leaf to test the oil; when it sizzles immediately, you’re good to go. Fry the rosemary and sage leaves, stirring occasionally with a slotted spoon, until crispy and muted green in color, 30 to 90 seconds. Transfer the fried herbs to a paper towel to drain.
- Step 4
To serve, add ½ teaspoon butter, if using, and 4 olives to the bottom of each serving bowl. Ladle the beans into the bowls, then drizzle each with olive oil and top with cheese, pepper and fried herbs.
- Oil-cured black olives, with their wrinkly dark skins, have a much deeper and muskier flavor than brined ones and are worth seeking out for their specific butteriness. You can find them in any specialty Italian grocery or deli, or at the cold deli bar of many supermarkets.
Private Notes
Comments
I've always been lukewarm on beans -- if they accompanied something, I'd eat them. Then I read about Rancho Gordo, and their beans. I don't know why they're so much better than plain old grocery store beans, but they are. I had been ordering them directly from their website but then I found them in a little local grocery store near me. Either way, worth seeking out.
Try braising your soaked beans in the oven versus stovetop simmering. Comes out perfect, and doesn’t need monitoring. Simply rinse/drain 1lb soaked beans, place in a Dutch oven with your fave aromatics (yes, even garlic), nice dash of salt, and a good glug of olive oil. Cover with fresh water to 1/2 inch or so above beans. Bring to a simmer on stove top, then bake covered in a pre-heated 335° oven for 75 minutes. Seriously good method.
All of the fresh herbs can get rather pricey, defeating the appeal of the inexpensive beans. Questions: 1. Could one substitute dried thyme, rosemary and sage during cooking and then top with something like crispy, frizzled shallots? Yes, I know, not the same recipe but definitely more affordable… 2. And please answer the Parmesan rind questions for those of us who don’t happen to have any sitting around in the fridge…
I had these twice at Ci Siamo and then decided to try my luck with them at home. I have an instant pot and was trying to figure out the timing for that. I used a mix of white Corona beans, black beans, and red kidney beans, which is what I had in the house. I cooked it as the recipe suggested using an instant pot. I soak the beans for about six hours prior to cooking them. In the instant pot I used the bean setting and cooked it for 45 minutes. The corona beans because they’re so big were not quite done and so I put it in for an additional seven minutes. At this point,, the black beans and kidney beans were perfect but the corona beans were still not done so I have it sitting for another eight minutes. the last two times I just put it on a manual setting. If I was doing it again at the start, I think I just put it in for one hour total. When I tried the beans on their own, they were good, but they really do need the oil brined black olives in order to replicate the flavor at Ci Siamo.
made this with rancho gordo alubias blancos, and a 4 hour soak in the fridge. They took the minimum amount of time to cook. i used 3 parm rinds, a big bunch and a little strand of thyme, and 3 dried bay leaves. i have not made the olive oil fried topping yet. these beans are delicious with the black olive base and a dusting of parm and black pepper on top. i did not use chicken stock and i am glad i didn't because that would have been too rich with all that parm.
I've made this several times, my husband loves it. We just did something that worked for us. The leftover olive oil after frying the rosemary and sage, we added it to the broth. Not a lot of olive oil was used for the frying - oo is too expensive these days and we did not want to waste any of it.