For years, I was convinced that for a dish as simple as olive oil-braised white beans, dried cannellini were the only way to go.
It was well worth the time to soak the beans overnight, then braise them in olive oil, rosemary, garlic and chile for two to three hours, I reasoned, because the end result was so wonderfully creamy and suffused with aromatic richness. How could canned beans possibly compare?
I found out just how good they could be during lockdown, when the vagaries of one supermarket trip yielded more canned beans than dried.
Looking to stock the pantry, I bought as many cans of cannellini as I could carry. When a craving for a pot of herby beans hit, I opened a couple of cans and cooked them using the same ingredients as I would for dried beans, cutting the liquid down.
It went blissfully fast. With no need to soak, the beans required only a quick rinse before hitting the pan, which was sizzling with slivers of garlic turning gold at the edges. Less than 20 minutes later, the beans had absorbed the olive oil and melted into a stewlike mass. The kitchen smelled divine.
Still, I was suspicious. It all just seemed too quick, too easy.
I stuck a spoon in. The sauce was even more velvety than my usual dried beans. This made sense once I thought about it. Cooked under pressure, canned beans are taken way past the point of tenderness, until they break down a little and the skins burst. This is problematic for dishes like bean salads, where you want beans to maintain their shape. But when simmered into braises and stews, those verging-on-mushy canned beans more readily release their starch into the sauce than dried beans cooked from scratch.
I could eat my creamy and thick bean stew with a fork, though adding a little water turned it nicely soupy. It’s versatile, too. Working my way through my stock of canned beans, I played with the basic recipe, stirring in tomatoes and, in this version, golden fried onions, which add both texture and sweetness.
One thing to know about canned beans, though: Brands vary a lot in texture and flavor. Beans canned with salt taste a lot better than no-salt varieties. Make sure to read the ingredients. Then stock your pantry, knowing that so many satisfying meals are only minutes away.
