The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Go gratin with beans, tomatoes, sausage
The latest cookbook from award-winning Vermontbased cooking teacher Molly Stevens offers more than 100 recipes for easygoing comfort food with flair. If you have cooked from her earlier books, All About Braising and All About Roasting, you will welcome All About Dinner (Norton/penguin Random House, $54), a handsome tome that includes a compact eight-page cooking course from a woman who has taught in the U.S. and Europe.
Stevens likes simple dishes made with ordinary ingredients. She recommends cooking a recipe you like over and over until you don’t need the recipe anymore and are equipped to invent your own. Her book teaches skills, builds confidence and provides a load of ideas about turning out good dinners. It’s a winner.
WHITE BEAN GRATIN WITH TOMATOES AND SAUSAGE
Serves 4
1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil 8 ounces (250 g) fresh Italian sausages, hot or sweet, casings removed
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
Salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 ml) finely chopped fresh rosemary Pinch red pepper flakes Freshly ground pepper
2 cans (19 ounce/540 ml size) white beans (cannellini or Great Northern), drained, rinsed
1 can (14 1/2 ounces/398 ml) diced or crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh bread crumbs or panko crumbs
1 cup (250 ml/2 ounces) finely grated Parmesan cheese Hot sauce (optional)
Place oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 350F (180C). Lightly oil a wide, medium gratin dish, baking pan or 10-inch (25 cm) ovenproof frying pan.
Heat 2 teaspoons (10 ml) of the oil in a medium, heavy frying pan over medium heat. Flatten sausage into chunks and brown on all sides in the oil until cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Break sausage into bite-size pieces and transfer to the oiled gratin dish, discarding all but 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of the sausage fat from the pan. (You may substitute olive oil for the sausage fat.)
Return pan to medium heat and cook onion with a pinch of salt until softened and lightly coloured, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes and some pepper and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to gratin dish.
Add beans, tomatoes and their juice, and parsley to the gratin dish, stirring gently without smashing the beans. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of the oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread mixture in an even layer. *
Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and cheese. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of the oil and bake, uncovered, in preheated oven until hot through and beginning to brown on top, 30 to 40 minutes. If desired, brown a few minutes under a hot broiler.
Serve hot or warm, with optional hot sauce.
* Gratin may be prepared up to the point where you add the bread crumbs and cheese. Refrigerate, covered, for up to two days. Bring to room temperature. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, cheese and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil and bake as instructed above.