Butter beans in tuna sauce
Fagioli con salsa di tonno
If you love vitello tonnato, you’ll adore butter beans in tuna sauce. A great way to give ordinary beans a total makeover with a rich taste and gorgeous creamy texture.
Boiled butter beans and tuna make a terrific pair and they often appear together in salads, pasta dishes and omelets. This recipe – though very filling – belongs to the salads/sidedish category, and it is so good that you may not have appetite for the main course, if you serve it as a starter.
The combination of dressing and tuna sauce may seem like overkill, but beans are really thirsty, and the dish gets too dry, if you skip the dressing.
Serves 4
Prep Time 15 M
Cooking Time: 1 H (+ soaking overnight)
Ingredients
200 g butter beans
salt
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
Fresh mint
1 can of tuna
1 tbsp capers
2 tsp mayonnaise
1 anchovies
Preparation
- Soak the beans overnight.
- Bring the beans to the boil in a casserole filled with fresh water and let them simmer for about 1 hour.
- Add salt to the water just before the beans are tender.
- Drain the beans and while still warm cover them in a dressing of vinegar, olive oil and chopped fresh mint.
- Blend the tuna with capers, anchovies and mayonnaise.
- Add a little olive oil or boiling water from the beans to get the texture right.
- Serve the butter beans partly covered by tuna sauce.
Other ways to cook dried beans and peas:
Butter beans in tuna sauce are almost as good as vitello tonnato.
I absolutely love butter beans, but it seems I rarely eat them. I would love to try making this.
I haven’t seen a recipe with butter beans in ages! I love them! This is a totally new recipe for me and it’s great! A must try!