Beans and Pasta alla Romana • The Grumpy Olive

This Beans and Pasta alla Romana is absolutely one of my favorite dishes and no, this is not Simona speaking/writing, is Cristina.

I know I have not been around here for a long time and all, I am too into my upcoming exams so I am not really trying to get distracted with anything else. Yes, I am the Rory Gilmore of the situation, and yes, I kind of really like the comparison – even though I always loved Lorelai more. Ah, the choices.

But let’s focus on the recipe of the day again. I don’t know where you live, but around here the weather is…terrible. I won’t use the words I really wanted to because I am a lady, but it’s May and it can’t be like this: where is spring? What happened to flowers, birds, nice weather etc etc?

So, thanks to the weather, I shall present you to this pretty great dish, Beans and Pasta alla Romana: both my mum and grandma make it quite often, grandma, in particular, makes it using freshly made pasta, but use any sort of pasta you like, you won’t be disappointed in any case.

INGREDIENTS

400g of beans, any kind you prefer
500ml of water
30g of smoked pancetta
1/2 onion
1 cube of vegetarian stock
100g of tomato sauce
200g of pasta
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Start by mincing the onion and chopping the smoked pancetta into cubes.

In a large pot, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and add the smoked pancetta and the minced onion and let them brown.

Add the tomato sauce and the cube of vegetarian stock and let it all cook for roughly 10 minutes. Now add the beans and the water – just remember you may need more or less water – then a pinch of salt and mix when needed, until the beans are nearly cooked.

Finally add the pasta and let it cook al dente.

Adding some parmesan on top makes it pretty great too! And if you feel like splurging on it, the rind of the parmesan added while cooking the beans gives this dish a whole new taste.