Escarole and Beans
Escarole and Beans is cheap, easy to make, and healthy. My doctor always tells me to eat more greens and beans, so this recipe should make her happy. Escarole, scarola in Italian, looks like lettuce but with wider, wavy leaves. It’s in the chicory family, and like endive, and radicchio it has a slightly bitter taste when eaten raw. This is authentic Cucina Povera, the cooking of the poor.
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 head escarole – washed and cut into 1-inch slices
- 4 cloves sliced garlic
- Salt, black, and red pepper – to taste
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 1 – 15-ounce can cannellini beans drained and rinsed.
Heat the oil in a large pot with salt, black and red pepper. Sauté the garlic on low heat until it’s soft but not brown.
Wash (drain but leave it wet) the escarole and cut it into one-inch slices removing the base and add it to the garlic and oil. It may seem like too much, but it will wilt and reduce in about ten minutes.
Cover the pot until the escarole begins to wilt and toss it to coat it with the oil.
Add a half cup of stock (or water) and the rinsed beans. Add some hot water if you’d like it thinner. Simmer ten minutes and serve.
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