So yesterday I made a sauce for pasta using a tin of chopped tomato with chili, and another tin of chopped tomato with onion and garlic, which I tossed into a pan with half a tin of water (rinsed out both tins), and left it to get on with it. But it was rather liquid, so to thicken it I got out a small tin of red kidney beans which I blended with a stick blender and stirred in. Seasoned, the sauce was delicious with Schwabian Maultasche, but we only wanted about half of it.
So tonight......
1/2 cup cannelini beans, soaked for one hour in boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube
1 very large onion (or two small ones)
1 red pepper
1 chili pepper
1 garlic clove
1 pack unsmoked lardons
The end of a punnet of mushrooms
1/2 quantity of tomato sauce, see introduction
Put the beans into a pressure cooker with 1/2 the onion, 1/2 the pepper, the chili, the garlic and the stock cube. Leave the onion and pepper whole; I did cut the chili in half and removed the seeds, but you don't have to. Cover with water, and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before releasing pressure, and ideally let it release pressure naturally.
Chop the other half of the onions and pepper, and fry them up in a heavy-based pan with the lardons and mushrooms. Add the tomato sauce. Remove the onion, pepper and chili (and garlic if you can get it) from the pressure cooker, and blend with a tablespoonful of stock. Add this to the casserole. Stir well and check the seasoning, and let simmer for about 1/2 an hour. Serve with crusty bread and butter.
