For anyone out there who loves a good Alfredo sauce (you know who you are), this use of the classic sauce with beans is a revelation.
That’s right.
Beans.
Who woulda thought?
I made my dish with the giant Royal Corona beans made famous by the Rancho Gordo Bean Company in Napa, but the original recipe simply used white beans from a can. It’s your call, but the Rancho Gordo beans are pretty wonderful in this dish.
Here is a link to the Rancho Gordo site: Rancho Gordo Beans.
I’ve used Rancho Gordo beans on any number of recipes here on Blue Cayenne. They’re the freshest and most interesting dried beans around. Founded by former web-designer and jazz DJ Steve Sando in 2001, The Rancho Gordo bean company has a huge and devoted following ranging from high-end restaurant chefs like Thomas Keller to home cooks like yours truly. The company’s laudable mission is to preserve traditional and rare bean varieties and to support sustainable farming techniques and small-scale farmers. While the company specializes in heirloom beans grown in Mexico, these particular Royal Corona beans are grown for them in Poland. Rancho Gordo advertises the Royal Coronas as beans “created in Mesoamerica, bred in Italy and grown in Poland.” That’s quite a biography for this pretty (and way large) bean.
This recipe is from The New York Times. The original recipe appears here.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Garlicky Alfredo Beans
Ingredients
- 1/4 C. unsalted butter
- 8 garlic cloves (thinly sliced plus 1 garlic clove, finely grated)
- Kosher salt
- 1 lb. cooked Rancho Gordo Royal Corona Beans (or two 15-ounce cans of rinsed and drained white beans)
- 3/4 C. heavy cream
- 1/2 C. grated Parmesan
- Buttered sourdough breadcrumbs (for garnish)
- Parsley sprig (for garnish)
Directions
- Step 1 Cook beans (or use equivalent amount of canned and rinsed beans–two 15-ounce cans works here). Set aside.
- Step 2 Melt butter and saute garlic slices in the butter. Remove garlic slices from butter and set aside.
- Step 3 Use the butter in which the garlic was sautéed. Add beans, heavy cream, Parmesan and salt to taste. Stir to combine. Heat the mixture to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes until you have a thick butter/Parmesan sauce. Stir in the grated garlic and top with buttered bread crumbs. Serve garnished with a sprig of parsley and a sprinkling of the reserved sauteed garlic slices .
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