Culinary Explorer
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Fagioli all'Uccelletto
Created by Chef Graziella
The beans of Tuscany, braised with sage and tomato in the manner used for small game birds. Four ingredients, no complications, and the quiet confidence of food that needs nothing more.
The name tells you everything and nothing. 'Uccelletto' means 'little bird,' and Tuscans season their beans the same way they season the small game birds that once filled the hillsides: sage, garlic, tomato, and good olive oil. The birds are mostly gone now. The beans remain.
This is not a complicated dish. It cannot be, because Tuscan cooking does not permit complication. You cook dried beans until tender. You soften garlic in olive oil with sage leaves until fragrant. You add tomatoes and let everything simmer together until the sauce clings to the beans. That is all.
What you keep out is as significant as what you put in. There is no onion here. No celery. No carrot. The soffritto that anchors so much Italian cooking has no place in this dish. The beans must taste of beans, the sage must perfume without overwhelming, and the tomato exists only to bind everything together. Restraint, not addition, creates the flavor.
Ingredients
dried cannellini beans
Quantity
1 pound
soaked overnight and drained
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
1/3 cup
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
peeled and lightly crushed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried cannellini beanssoaked overnight and drained | 1 pound |
| extra virgin olive oil | 1/3 cup |
| garlic clovespeeled and lightly crushed | 4 |
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