Pasta And Beans With Rocket Salad
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 lb fresh or tinned borlotti beans
- 1 small green celery stalk
- 1 small onion peeled and quartered
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 stock cubes
- 5 oz thin egg noodles broken into short lengths
- extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and black peppercorns
for the salad:
- 8 oz young tender salad rocket
- extra-virgin olive oil
- wine vinegar
- pili-pili hot relish optional
- salt and pepper
serve with:
- granary bread
Instructions
- If you are using fresh beans, place in a large saucepan and add sufficient water to come 2 in (5 cm) above them. Bring to the boil over a moderate heat and then simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, then drain. Return the beans to the saucepan, add 3 1/2 pints (2 litres) water, the celery, onion and garlic and reheat to boiling.
- Turn down the heat to very low and cover, leaving a gap for steam to escape and simmer very gently for about 3 hours, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface. A
- After 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 hours of this cooking time, add the stock cubes; if you prefer a very plain taste, just add a little salt and some freshly ground pepper. The beans should be meltingly tender but should not have started to disintegrate.
- Remove and discard the celery stalk; ladle one third of the beans into a bowl, put the rest through the vegetable mill with a fine-gauge disc and return to the saucepan; add the reserved, whole beans and any liquid they have with them. This recipe can be prepared 24 hours in advance up to this point.
- Shortly before serving, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta in it until only just tender.
- Reheat the beans slowly over a low heat while the pasta is cooking; add the drained pasta and then stir in 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 3 tbsp vinegar, a pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
- Mix 1 1/2 - 2 tsp of the pili-pili relish with 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt in a small bowl and stir into the beans and pasta mixture.
- Ladle into individual soup bowls, drizzle a little more olive oil with the surface, finish with a generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and serve, handing round the salad rocket and a small bowl of pili-pili sauce separately.
- Serve with thick slices of granary bread.
Calories: 507 kcal
Carbohydrates: 92 g
Protein: 28 g
Fat: 4g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Trans Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 30 mg
Sodium: 504 mg
Potassium: 1172 mg
Fiber: 21 g
Sugar: 6 g
Vitamin A: 27 IU
Vitamin C: 6 mg
Calcium: 106 mg
Iron: 8 mg