Fagioli all’uccelletto (beans with sage and tomato)

Fagioli all’uccelletto are a Tuscan side dish from Florence and the surrounding area. Pellegrino Artusi wrote about them in Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well: the name is said to come from the flavourings, sage and garlic, that Tuscans used to cook small birds (uccelletti). Few ingredients, and the oil makes the difference twice: in the pan and raw at the end.

Ingredients for 4

• 600 g cooked cannellini beans (about 250 g dried), with some of their cooking water
• 4 tablespoons IL CONTE Blend, plus a drizzle of IL CONTE Raggia single variety to finish
• 2 garlic cloves
• 8 fresh sage leaves
• 200 ml tomato passata
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. If starting from dried beans, soak them overnight, then simmer them gently in unsalted water until tender; salt only at the end.
2. In a pan, ideally earthenware, gently warm the oil with the garlic cloves crushed in their skins and the sage leaves, until the garlic is fragrant and the sage turns crisp.
3. Add the drained beans and a ladle of their water, stir and let them take on flavour for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the passata, salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce thickens.
5. Serve hot with a drizzle of raw oil. They are the classic side for sausages, which you can also cook in the same pan, or for boiled meat, as Artusi suggested.

The right oil

Cook with the Blend; at the end, a drizzle of Raggia single variety: its grassy notes and peppery finish wake up the beans, which on their own are sweet.

Photo: Aplasia, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 4.0.