I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t pork and beans something Yogi steals from overweight campers?” Maybe, but what if you want to relive the teenager experience of eating whatever you want, but want to do it in a way that fits in with your current gourmet tastes? After all, what is cassoulet but high class pork and beans? Let’s make some classy pork and beans!
Preheat oven to 300-ish F. Sauté onion, carrots, celery, whatever you’ve got around in bacon fat. Even better, start by rendering some chopped bacon or lardons and soften the vegetables in that. Add about four sausages. Add a can of diced tomatoes or a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. Add a regular-sized can of beans, cannellini preferred. Add spices like Dijon mustard, cumin, thyme, etc. Once it’s bubbling, cover and bake an hour-ish. Cut up the sausages into bite-sized chunks and serve.
Update! It’s not exactly pretty, but here’s a photo of a bowl of it:
I’m going to try this when I get home.
Totally random, but I hunt down the other smart guy in our elementary school, and he has a blog, and on that blog he has cassoulet, which we just had last night. As in the takes 4 days to make, skin on the bottom so it won’t burn genuine recipe.
Since this will be a tad bit quicker, might try that this weekend. Personally, a Pumpkin Chili is my favorite beans and meat combo…
Hi Josh!
The magical thing about this recipe is that you can combine the leftovers with some new ingredients over a few days and you’ll eventually have cassoulet…without even trying.
I’m a big fan of lentil chili myself – I like how the texture works with ground beef.