How to Make White Bean and Aromatic Vegetable Ragout

How to Make White Bean and Aromatic Vegetable Ragout All right, our white bean Ragout. We’re going to use some Italian Cannellini Beans. I’m going to drain those. These are two 12 ounce jars. I’m going to drain and rinse those. I got my mirepoix; my carrot, celery, onion and a little bit of tomato product. I’m using what’s called the Peperonata. I’ll explain that later. So, for the onion, I want to do a large dice, maybe about quarter inch pieces. Ideally, I want the veggies about the same size as the way bean. I think that’s a nice professional look when the veggies, they’re garnishing something, they’re the same size. So, I’m going to try to get these in about quarter inch cubes, which is really close to the size of those white Cannellini beans. All right, and the same with the celery. So, once my mirepoix -- mirepoix is just the fancy culinary term for the aromatic veggies, carrot, celery, onion. Once my mirepoix is chopped, we’re going to sweat that or sauté it in a medium heat pan here. It’s a four-quart pot. So, put a couple of olive oil in there, about two tablespoons and on medium heat. I just want you to sweat those down for about five minutes before we add anything else, okay. You don’t need to put color on them. I don’t want to brown them. All right, so about five to six minutes on a medium heat and those will just to start soften and just start to get tender. Now, at that point, five minutes later, I’m going to add three cloves of chopped garlic. I did not use the press this time. I just chopped it with a knife. Now, while that garlic is flavoring that olive oil and mirepoix mixture, I’m going to grab my salt and pepper. This time, I decide to go with a ground black pepper. Another variation on this if you want to use a red pepper flake, really nice, a little spicier or a combination, whatever you like. Two really nice size pinches of salt and this is definitely a dish you got to taste. These white beans really bland to begin with and they really suck up a lot of salt. So, make sure you taste them as you go. As far as an herb here, I want to go real simple. Instead of adding a whole bunch of different dry herbs, I’m going to use my famous Herb de Provence. You’ve heard me talk about this in other videos probably. That’s the Southern French herb mix; rosemary, savory, marjoram, chervil, a little lavender; beautiful leaf with the beans in a dish like this, a perfect choice. I’m going to stir in about a half a teaspoon Herb de Provence and that’s pretty much it for flavorings. Now, what we’re going to do before we add the beans, we are going to simmer this with just enough chicken stock to cover. I don’t want this to be too soupy. You’re going to see later when I ladle this on the plate, how it kind of spreads out a little bit but it’s not really too loose. So, just barely cover that and simmer that for five minutes and then you’re going to add your beans. We’re going give that a little head start with the chicken stock. Again, just enough to cover and then you’re going to add your beans. Now, be gentle, don’t be crushing these beans. You want it to look nice. You want to leave the beans nice and whole and then the last of our ingredients here, one bay leaf. That was kind of a small one but that’s fine. And two nice rounded spoons of any kind of tomato product. I’m using what is called a Peperonata which is just kind of roasted red pepper and tomato sauce. Any kind of diced tomato out of the can, if you got a fresh tomato from the garden, chop that up and throw it in, it’d be beautiful. But that little bit of tomato; a nice little acid counterbalancing the sweetness of the mirepoix I think is a nice combination. I just want you to put that on low and just simmer it until everything are tender and all of those flavors are coming together, maybe 10 to15 minutes, all right? After 10, 15 minutes, I’ve checked. The carrots are probably going to take the longest, so I made sure that was tender and it was. I shaved a whole bunch of parsley. What I mean by shave, I’ve just taken a sharp knife like a 45 degree angle and just sliced the leaves right off the stems. I don’t pick it all apart; it takes too long. So, it’s a little chef trick. So, I shaved all the leaves off and just gave that a nice chop and again, don’t be too fine with that. I want to see some parsley when I stir this in. I don’t want it all just like a dust. And you notice I’m using a folding technique here because I don’t want to break up the beans, I want it to just come together without -- I don’t want any crushed beans I don’t want it to look like a bean soup. All right, to finish this off, I have put a couple of ladles on the plate here and again, check out the consistency, not too soupy, just enough liquid to moisten it all and just to make it beautiful underneath this roasted lamb shank. It’s what I serve over this time. Anything tastes good on top of this stuff, believe me; half chicken grill, a piece of fish, almost anything. So, I hope you give this a try, enjoy!