Butter beans baked with ricotta

Cook beans from scratch

I know, it’s so easy to open a jar of perfectly cooked, unblemished and intact beans from a posh brand. But do the maths: even the bog standard basic tinned ones are at the very least three times more expensive than the same amount of dried and cooked at home.

Some will say that the time it takes to cook them is more valuable, but I’m mainly thinking of how to eat better on a budget. If you’re counting pennies spent on food, the choice is very obvious.

They need soaking overnight or overday (soak in the morning, cook in the evening), which is no effort at all. They will need to simmer in fresh water for an hour or so, so true, it isn’t a quick and easy supper.

But once you’ve cooked a large batch, you can keep them in jars with some cooking liquid for a week in the fridge. You can also drain and portion them into freezer bags. Frozen, they will keep as long as three to six months.

Rice cooker is a bean cooker

Even better news for rice cooker owners: that little guy does the job brilliantly. How to cook beans in a rice cooker? Soak them, drain and transfer to the rice cooker with about twice the volume of fresh water. Make sure the contents won’t overflow as they will still expand considerably, so if cooking a large amount, do it in batches.

Set the appliance to a ‘soup’ or ‘congee’ programme so that it doesn’t switch off automatically when the liquid is absorbed. If that’s not an option, check the beans when the programme has finished and run it again, if they are still tough.

Saucy bean tray bake

Once you have your portion of cooked beans (or you’ve opened and drained a jar), it’s easy going. The spicy sauce/dressing is a combination of cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli mixed with the bean cooking liquor. The more of it you add, the saucier the beans will end up so it all depends on your preference: lots of sauce to dip bread in, or drier, almost crispy beans contrasting in texture with the soft ricotta.

The beans go well with onions, but to limit the washing up and to curb (at the time appetising, but later overly lingering) the smell of frying onions, I roast them in the oven before joining the beans.

Ricotta with a crust

Ricotta is a full fat, soft cheese so it doesn’t give you any kind of melting situation like even feta may do. In this bake it simply sits on top of the beans, developing a nice, light crust on the outside of the mounds.

I like to flavour it judiciously by adding some thyme leaves to complement the thyme in the beans, olive oil and a little Italian chilli: pepperoncino powder.

Variations

As mentioned already, the dish can be saucy or dry, depending on a whim and the amount of liquid added to the sauce. Likewise, you can make it spicy or very mild.

An interesting option could be to add some cooked pasta or cooked rice to the beans, should you wish to make it more substantial and filling – though in my view beans provide plenty of that already.

Instead of ricotta you can use feta, in which case just crumble it over the tray and sprinkle some seasoning over it.

And melty cheese will work quite gorgeously too, though that, I feel, might be material for a separate recipe.

More butter beans recipes

A wholesome and delicious dish of oven baked butter beans with pancetta, seasoned with garlic, herbs and a hint of cinnamon. Cook them from dried for a budget friendly dish.

Greek giant beans, fasolia gigantes, baked in garlic and dill sauce are delicious, especially when traditionally cooked from scratch, using soaked dried Greek gigantes, or butter aka lima beans as second best.

Butter beans with ham hock, a slow cooked stew of incredible flavours and richness, the ultimate comfort dish. Butter beans need soaking overnight, but what’s difficult about that?

More savoury ricotta recipes

Beef, ricotta and oregano meatballs from Ottolenghi are delicate and light, cooked in a richly flavoured tomato and onion sauce.

Conchiglioni, jumbo pasta shells, filled with ricotta and walnuts and baked in tomato sauce. Vegetarian filling of three cheeses with herbs and a walnut crunch takes a little time to prepare but the result is worth every second.

Vegetarian version of lasagne with spinach and ricotta. Easier to make than the beef lasagne, this recipe uses cooked cream sauce instead of bechamel.