Quarantine Cooking: Borlotti Beans

Normally I cook my Tuscan Beans with Northern White or Cannellini beans, but I had bought Borlotti beans and decided to use them in this recipe with some variations.  I was out of wine, and so I decided to make a Cosmopolitan before cooking. But I don't have a cocktail shaker, so my Cosmo is rather inelegant with the giant ice cube in my coupe glass.  I didn't have limes, but I did have candied cherries for garnish.  I'm not a fan I think of this cocktail and will likely just make spritzers with the cherry ginger fruit juice and candied cherries with soda water.

I set out the Italian sausage, Borlotti beans and a white onion first.

Key to my Tuscan bean dishes are lots of herbs:  sage, rosemary, thyme.

I don't think I've ever added celery before to this beans dish, but I suppose I had mire poix in my head though I was too lazy to chop carrots.

 I bought a fennel at the produce shop, but I had intended it for a salad.  And so I used the fronds and the stalky tops for my bean stew.

I had not soaked the beans overnight, and so I decided to instead boil the beans.  I should have brought it to a boil and then lowered the heat to a gentle simmer--the advice of Samin Nosrat for cooking beans so that they're tender throughout and not hard in the middle and then mushy all around.  I basically hard boiled my beans so that the skins were splitting for a couple hours.

My mise en place:  chopped Swiss and Rainbow chard, a box of vegetable broth in case my jar of chicken bone broth weren't enough, garlic and Spanish olive oil, chopped white onions, chopped herbs and garlic, and chopped fennel.

 After browning and sauteeing the onions, into the pot go all the rest of the ingredients which I simmered on the stovetop for 45 minutes or so.

I had ladled the bean stew into two glass casserole dishes for baking in a 400 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes, one of which I gave to a neighbor, who brought over these home made dinner rolls the next day, which will be a delicious accompaniment with leftover stew.