In our house New Years is the time to reorganize our schedule, restart routines, and simplify our lives after a hectic holiday season. But with a baby in the house, that’s never easy – no matter the time of year.
Dinnertime always sneaks up on us out of nowhere. It feels like we just finished lunch, cleaned up the play room after the baby went on a container dumping rampage, scrubbed marker off the floor for the zillionth time, and explained to our older son that, “No, Uncle Denny is not a werewolf. He’s just hairy.”And then we are back to trying to force our children to sit still long enough to eat.
Being a chef doesn’t make those things any easier. Dinner still needs to be quick and accompanied by minimal mess. And that’s hard to do in the spur of the moment.
But my favorite motto for simplifying dinner at home is, “Cook today for tomorrow.” We use the same technique at the restaurant, devote time to cutting ingredients, making sauces, par-cooking dishes, and organizing everything so that when a table comes in to order five different entrees, we can fire them out in less than 20 minutes. It works at home, too.
When you actually get time to fix a meal, fix two meals using some of the same ingredients. And stick one in the refrigerator. This saves time and also helps use up some of the extra ingredients you may not have needed.
Soups are a great dish to cook ahead. They are also perfect for using up leftover ingredients. Dried bean soups in particular are a great pantry staple. They’re good for you. They’re inexpensive. They keep in the cupboard for a long time. They’re packed with flavor. And they’re easy! And our 20-month-old daughter, will eat her weight in beans in one sitting. So it’s a win-win for us.
This soup is something I serve at the restaurant on occasion and at home as well.
I use a dutch oven for this dish, which is basically just a cast iron pot with a lid. The dutch oven technique is simple. Brown a few things, add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, then stick it in the oven and forget about it.
Plus I absolutely love Romesco sauce. It’s a Catalonian sauce with roasted peppers, tomatoes, garlic, herbs, almonds, and cheese. It’s pureed and emulsified with oil and dried bread, typically. It’s served similarly to pesto – as a garnish or a spread. And it’s delicious.
This recipe takes the flavors of Romesco and infuses them into the broth of a standard navy bean and pork soup.
Ingredients
1 lb dry navy beans
2 qt unsalted chicken stock*
2 C dry white wine
14 oz can roasted piquillo peppers, diced**
½ C almonds, ground
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 C scallion sliced
6 oz tomato paste
4-5 large sprigs fresh thyme, tied in a bundle with butcher twine
2 smoked ham hocks
½ C +extra for garnish extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan for garnish
Fresh basil for garnish
*You may not use all of the stock. You can use water if you don’t have stock. But don’t. Get some chicken stock. It adds a depth of flavor and richness that water simply can’t because … well it’s water.
**I prefer the flavor of piquillo peppers, but you can substitute roasted red peppers if you can’t find them. If you have fresh red peppers, that’s even better. But roast them over an open flame and then remove the skins before chopping them up.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large dutch oven over medium heat, add ½ C olive oil with scallion, garlic, and almonds. Sweat for about two minutes until garlic and almonds are golden and fragrant. Add fresh thyme and tomato paste. Again stir until tomato paste begins to stick and caramelize.
- Add white wine and scrape bottom of pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any caramelized bits.
- Add beans, ham hock, salt, and pepper. Add enough stock to cover beans by at least 3 inches. Can add more later if the soup is too thick. Bring to a boil. Let simmer on the stove for approximately 10-15 minutes. A thick foam should start to rise to the top of the stock. Use a ladle or spoon to skim off the foam and discard.
- Place the lid on the dutch oven and move into the preheated oven. Let bake for at least one hour and 30 minutes. Check the texture of the beans and the salt level. Let bake another 30-45 minutes if beans are not tender. Cooking time varies depending on the age of the beans and temperature fluctuations in the oven.
- Once beans reach desired tenderness, remove from the oven to cool. Remove thyme bundle. Discard. Remove ham hocks and let cool. Shred the meat and add it back to the soup. Store in refrigerator over night. Reheat when ready to serve.
- Garnish with Parmesan, fresh basil, and a drizzle of olive oil.