Olive oil
1/2 cup (30 grams) panko-style plain or coarse breadcrumbs
Kosher salt
2 garlic cloves
3 anchovy fillets
1 tablespoon drained capers
Red-pepper flakes
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
One 15.5-ounce (440-gram) can white beans (cannellini, navy, or other), drained and rinsed
1/4 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Note: Despite its cooking-for-one vibe, this is also very nicely doubled as a more substantial side dish.
Sometimes I daydream about writing a cookbook entirely devoted to ways you can doctor up a can of beans. It's usually during lunch on a weekday, which on all of the days when I'm not working on a wildly successful, ready-by-1:00-p.m. recipe that I don't need to save for dinner—that would be just about all of the days—is highly likely to be a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. When I do make time for experimentation, canned beans are one of my favorite muses. My two favorite things to do with them are to treat them as you would pasta—warming them in some tomato sauce with Parmesan, or an aglio olio, or a basil pesto—or to apply a favorite salad dressing to them and scoop them onto toast. This version is a little of both. To a quadfecta of ingredients—olive oil, garlic, anchovies, and lemon—that could make a crumpled piece of paper taste good (note: not fact-checked), I add a smidge of Dijon mustard and a small amount of capers (they're so good here; please, try them), and warm a can of beans in it. They're finished with some fried breadcrumbs reminiscent of the croutons essential to all good Caesar salads, and Parmesan, and then you're supposed to slide them onto a bowl or plate—but nobody
is going to know if you eat them straight from the pan.
In a medium-sized skillet, warm 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium
heat; then add the breadcrumbs. Season with salt, and cook, stirring,
until they're crisp and evenly golden brown, about 5 minutes. Scrape them
into a bowl and set aside.
On a cutting board, mince together the garlic, anchovies, and capers. Heat
another 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the garlic-caper mixture, pepper flakes, and zest, and cook until the garlic is lightly golden at the edges. Add the beans, and cook until they're warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the Dijon mustard, and cook with the beans for 30 seconds. The beans will look a little creamy; add 1 table- spoon water if they don't. Season with salt to taste. Turn the heat off, and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice. Transfer to a bowl or plate, and finish with crumbs, Parmesan, and parsley, if using. Eat right away.