And one more use for those beans…

 

 

 

 

I promise that this will be the last post about white beans.  Cannellini beans to be specific.  At least for awhile.  It’s just that they are so versatile and can be used in so many ways!  When last I left you I was contemplating a white chili but my thoughts changed when I decided to pull some of "my" lamb (a few months ago I purchased a half lamb from a Yakima farmer) from the freezer.  So the cannellini beans were reinvented as a base for a seared loin chop.   

 

Since the beans were already cooked – and to refresh your memory the original incarnation had them flavored with garlic, olive oil and rosemary – I first worked on the other ingredients. 

 

First a sliced sweet onion went into the pan with a little olive oil.  I cooked it down until it was becoming translucent.  Then I added two cloves of thinly sliced garlic and a couple of bay leaves.  Once all of that was very tender, one pint of homegrown canned tomatoes (I love when I use my own produce!) went into the pot and I added a little more chopped, fresh rosemary along with salt and pepper.

 

I let this simmer for about an hour to reduce the liquid from the tomatoes and to allow all the flavors to meld.  The result was a sweet and savory tomato sauce.  At this point the beans were added to the pot and the heat turned down to very low.  I let the beans gently warm up while I seared the lamb chop. 

 

When the chop was cooked to medium rare I plated a couple of scoops of beans, added the lamb and topped it with some chopped kalamata olives.  I put a couple of slices of lemon on the plate (that’s a Meyer lemon in the photo, hence the orangish color) and just before eating squeezed them over the dish. 

 

The sweet tomato-onion sauce with the salty olives, rich lamb and acidity of the lemon all came together in a nicely balanced kaleidescope of flavors! A nice winter to spring to dish.