White Beans w/ Pesto

Cathy, one of our csa members, has given us another recipe. This time it is for basil. An herb we have been receiving in our csa for the past three weeks. She highly recommends this easy recipe that pairs basil with beans.

Ingredients:

2 cups dried white beans, picked over and soaked for four to six hours, or 3cans white beans, drained and rinsed

1 onion, cut in half

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

Salt to taste

1/2 cup pistou (pesto without the pine nuts) or arugula pesto

Process:

Drain the beans, and place in a pot with 2 quarts water, the onion,garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to low, coverand simmer one hour. Add salt to taste, and simmer for another 30 minutes toan hour until the beans are soft and fragrant. Remove the onion and the bayleaf, and drain the beans through a colander set over a bowl.

Return the beans to the pot with some of the broth, and stir in thepistou or, pesto. Thin out as desired with the broth from the beans. Ifusing canned beans, use a little warm water to thin out the pesto ifdesired. Serve warm or room temperature.

Yield: Serves six.

Advance preparation: The cooked beans freeze well and can be cooked up tothree days ahead. Toss them with the pesto, so long as you don¹t add thecheese, and freeze. Alternately, you can freeze the beans with their brothand drain after thawing. Stir in the pesto just before serving.