Legume
White beans
fabes
Also called fabes, cannellini, butter beans, large white beans
Large dried white beans — Asturian fabes, cannellini, butter beans — that cook to a creamy interior with the skins still on. They are winter-pot beans, not the small navy bean of a British baked-bean tin.
Origin
The Americas, then Iberian, Italian and Greek winter pots. Fabada wants fabes if you can find them; cannellini and butter beans are the grocery stand-in.
Flavour
Creamy, mild, a little chestnut when cooked slowly in their own liquor. The skins taste more mineral than the insides.
How to use it
Soak overnight in plenty of water, drain, and simmer gently with onion, oil and a bay leaf until the centre is creamy and the skins have not burst. Salt late. A rolling boil splits them into foam. For ribollita or gigantes plaki, cook the beans separately until almost done, then finish in the sauce so they take flavour without turning to mash. Tinned beans are a fair shortcut: rinse, then simmer in the stew ten minutes. Acid — tomato, vinegar — goes in after they are tender. Save the pot liquor; it is the body of the soup.
Storage
Dried pantry, cool and dry. Cooked beans keep several days in their liquor in the fridge, and freeze well.
Recipes using it
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