Ragout for You

The May issue of Bon Appetit has been open on my kitchen counter pretty much since it arrived in the mail. There’s so much in it I want to cook! Last night I made the White Bean Ragout with Toast from page 48. It’s easily veganized by omitting the parmesan (which I did not do). I served it to my kids with some sliced turkey dogs – super fancy franks ‘n beans style. For the husband I added poached salmon (another BA recipe I’ll tell you about tomorrow).

The recipe calls for making a soffritto (sautee 3 finely chopped onions and 1 finely chopped red pepper in olive oil until very soft, add 3 minced cloves of garlic, 2 tsp. tomato paste and cook until tomato becomes deep red), but I’ve definitely seen ready-made soffritto in the freezer section of the grocery store so you could probably skip a step there. Basically, you just heat 2 cans (15oz, drained, rinsed) cannellini beans in 1/2 cup soffritto over medium-high heat for about a minute. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth (the actual recipe called for more) and bring to a boil. Simmer, scraping up the browned bits, until thickened. Add a cup of halved cherry or grape tomatoes and simmer until those are tender. Stir in 2 tbsp grated Parmesan (or don’t) and season with salt and pepper. Serve over thick slices of toasted ciabatta, garnished with chopped parsley and drizzled with olive oil. Yum!

Click here for the full recipe.