Pasta e fagioli (Spaghetti with Bean Sauce) - Test 3

1- Sometimes, failures are awesome. I had a cup of cooked Hidatsa Shield Figure Beans and tried making the Pottage recipe, which requires uncooked beans; I also didn't have any oregano, dry or fresh, on hand, so I substituted with marjoram. It turned out really wet, so I boiled it down, which created a really delicious sauce, which I serve over pasta! Awesome!
2 - A lovely, simple, understated comfort food.
3 - Again used the Hidatsa, but doubled the amount, and changed the instructions a bit to mix the pasta directly into the sauce before serving. I will graduate it to Test 3 even though I've made these changes, and if next time it ends up being as delicious, I will publish it, otherwise I will hold it back.
4 - NOTE : I've slightly altered the recipe, looking up Italian recipes for pasta and beans - there I found that the beans are run through the blender! How exciting! I will try this in my next attempt at this recipe.

5 - Sep 18 2021 - After a few years since last I made this, I made it again and it continues to be very good. I did try to grind the beans, using a food processor for a rough chop. Ben thought it was good like that, but I don't know if, for me, it was that the beans weren't quite cooked (I used purchased Mexican red beans) and were a bit grainy, or if it was the bean skins. Next time I will blender the beans into a fine slurry to see how that goes. No alterations for proportions or anything of the sort.

6 - Jul 17 2022 - This doesn't get made often because dry beans and fresh tomato season don't really go together. But I did make it, and it was good, and I learned some more about it. First, this time around it was obvious that, if I'm mixing the noodles with the sauce, 8oz is definitely too little in terms of dry pasta proportions. I am changing it to 1lb of pasta. Secondly, I made it with pinto beans that started to go soft, and didn't remove the tomato skins. I did a quick pulse in the blender to combine the two, and I feel that the texture is not right, and the skins of both the beans and the tomato are the problem. Next time it may be to liquify in the blender, or it may be to pass the sauce through a sieve, or maybe even both. It could also be that there are two recipes in this - one for firm beans in hot stewed tomato sauce over pasta, the other a creamy bean sauce that happens to have tomato in it.

7 - The browned garlic really comes through. Grinding the beans is a good thing, and I need to do it more thoroughly OR run the crunched beans through a sieve.

8 - Adding the frisée worked a real treat. Everything worked well, Ben was super ebullient about how good it was. I think it could be again improved with an optional drizzle of vinegar on top.

9 - I was given some gluten free pasta and tried it with the sauce. Well, the sauce was good but the pasta was just fine, it was so brittle when cooked that I ended up eating it with a spoon! If it had been regular pasta I likely would have graduated it to La Mouffette. I made the sauce with leftover beans cooked in the style of Mogette de Vendee but the pasta flavored the sauce so much that I'm not sure if it made a difference. I'm also keeping it here because I want to try some changes to simplify. Instead of adding water to the tomatoes AND THEN boiling it all away, I'm going to try just adding water to the beans. Apparently the logic of adding water to the tomatoes is to match the pasta cooking time and reduce the acidity of the tomato. For liver health, I think the acid is useful. Now let's see what it means for the recipe. Also, keeping the broth for the beans makes sense because while blending, the extra water helps to hydrate the starch from the beans to create a smoother, creamier texture.

Number of portions: 6 servings
Serving size: ~320 g per portion
Calories per serving: ~410 kcal
Speed: Everyday Dish (hands-on time is moderate, but sauce and pasta cooking take attention)
Experienced cook (active time): 25–30 min
Novice cook (active time): 35–45 min
Total elapsed time: 40–50 min
LHSS Score: 7.1 / 10 (7.6 / 10 with Yogurt Commons Bread)

2 cups cooked white beans (if possible, cooked with bay and thyme in the water)
2 Tbsps olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp marjoram, dry
Salt, to taste
1/2  tsp pepper
3 large tomatoes (24oz) skinned (to skin, cut an X on the bottom and simmer in water for 1 minute)
1 cups chicken broth (removed 1 cup)

6 to 8oz/170g to 200g frisée lettuce, medium chop

2 tsps. lemon juice (for a little lift)
1 tsp fruit vinegar (either, red wine, white wine, plum, apple cider, etc)

3–4 Tbsps. (30–40 g) toasted pumpkin seeds

Parmesan (optional) per serving

Drizzle of more fruit vinegar per serving

Drizzle of olive oil (optional) per serving (½ tsp)
1lb pasta

1. Soak the dry beans overnight and then boil in fresh water with a bay leaf and a sprig of thyme until perfectly done (slightly underdone beans will create a mealy texture in the final sauce.)
2. Brown the garlic in the oil; remove the pan from your heat source.
3. Add marjoram and bay leaf and beans, stir in for about a minute more just to allow the flavours to mingle. Remove the bay leaf, season with salt and pepper. 
4. Put the beans in a blender with 1 cup of chicken broth until perfectly smooth. 
5. (You may want to run this through a sieve to remove any tough skins that haven't ground down enough.)
6. Start the water to boil the pasta.
7. Cook the tomatoes by bringing them to a boil (if drier tomatoes like plum, vs. wetter tomatoes like beefsteak, add a few Tbsps of water at the beginning). 
8. Reduce the tomatoes in a rapid simmer and cook, uncovered, until the liquid reduces by about a a quarter (instead of a third to a half). Stir occasionally. 
9. Once the tomatoes are cooked, stir in the pulverized beans and bring to a slow simmer.
10. Add the chopped frisée and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes until the greens are well wilted.
11. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice and fruit vinegar.
12. Combine the pasta and the sauce before serving.
13. Top with a bright a drizzle of fruit vinegar and, optionally, freshly grated Parmesan and/or olive oil.
14. Serve with a slice of bread.