Author Notes
This isn't one of those recipes where you leave in the morning and come home to dinner. I don't have an insta-pot, and I remain somewhat convinced that they're most efficacious for meat eaters. This is the kind of hands-off that still requires you to be home all day with the oven on, and even (*gasp*) soak beans the night before. If, however, you work from home (or plan on spending Sunday doing three weeks of laundry, wrangling ducks and weeding your garden) this is perfect.
A note on seasonality: I started making this thing in October, when the last of this summer's tomatoes were still available. Slow-roasting will rescue even January's supermarket tomatoes, but if you've got some already roasted frozen (like I do) feel free to use those. I find that when I thaw my summer stash, I need to add a couple tbsp of the weird thawed tomato juice.
Lastly, several parts of this recipe are stolen- the slow-roasted tomato method is hardly original (although I'd be hard pressed to source an original author) and the oven-based bean-cooking method is adapted from John Thorne's, which I learned about from Orangette. —Becca (tencansbeans)
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Ingredients
- Slow-roasting
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1/2 pound
dry gigante or lima beas
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2 tablespoons
olive oil
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1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
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1/4 teaspoon
ground black pepper
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8
Roma tomatoes, halved
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olive oil
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salt and pepper
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3 ounces
soft goat cheese
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2 tablespoons
good-quality extra virgin olive oil
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2 tablespoons
roughly chopped fresh oregano
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salt & pepper
Directions
- Slow-roasting
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The night before, pick over your dried beans- you want to get rid of any rocks and broken ones- then cover with water and leave to soak.
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First thing the next morning, set your oven to 200 degrees and arrange the oven racks so you can fit both a dutch oven with its lid on and a sheet pan.
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Drain the beans, but reserve the soaking liquid. Put the beans in a dutch oven (or something similar- it needs to be ovenproof, heavy, and have a lid) with 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp ground black pepper. Pour the reserved soaking water over the beans until just covered. I personally always have extra soaking water, but if you don't, add plain water until the beans are just covered. Put the dutch oven, lid on, on the bottom rack of the oven and go back to sleep.
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Around six hours later, arrange tomatoes, cut side up, on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush the cut sides with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the tray of tomatoes to the oven on the top shelf.
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Keep baking for ~six hours, until the beans are tender and the tomatoes are jammy. Personally, I leave everything alone for the first three hours and then check once an hour after that.
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When the beans and tomatoes are ready, take them out of the oven and turn it up to 350 degrees.
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Drain the beans. Working over the pan, cut the tomato halves into a few pieces each- you don't want to lose the juices. In a casserole pan- or the same dutch oven you baked the beans in- combine the drained beans, tomatoes and oregano. Pour in any juices that have collected in your tomato pan and mix gently to combine. Crumble the goat cheese over the top, drizzle with two tablespoons of olive oil, and finish with a pinch each of salt and pepper.
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Bake for 15 minutes. Serve with bread.
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