With today’s recipe we return to the Corpus de la Cuina Catalana, a book that includes 1,136 entries arranged in alphabetical order and type of dish, compiled over eight years with the help of historians, chefs and individuals. On page 326 we find these delicious and traditional smothered beans, sacsades or Catalan -although they are also typical of Valencian and Balearic cuisine-, with a little slow fire, a touch of aromatics and that there is not a lack of pork to pass the hard days of physical work.
The indications of the Corpus in this regard are quite elastic, and accept variations such as using dry onion and garlic or; something that sounds delicious if you can find them, very tender broad beans with their pods, shredded and chopped. Many of the later adapted recipes advise against using frozen broad beans, but if I have to choose between “fresh” broad beans the size of a big toe or frozen baby broad beans, I’m pretty sure I’ll go with the latter.
Regarding meats and cold cuts, the sliced pork rib is welcome, as is a piece of chorizo or sobrasada (YES, I want to), and if you want to put the sliced black sausage and keep its shape, place it carefully for ten minutes before the end of cooking and from then on, do not use the spoon to stir again, but give the casserole small short turns.
At the end of cooking there is also the possibility of adding a splash of aniseed or half a glass of a mixture -muscatel and brandy-, something that should work much better if you have content yourself with the sausages than if you have turned your beans into the festival of chacina. Depending on the chicha that is put on them and the amount that is served, we can be faced with a moderate first course or a generous single dish that, accompanied by a simple salad, deserves a documentary nap and a blanket.
Other modifications go through including peas in addition to broad beans -which can end the poor mummified peas, if they were tender at the beginning and are added at the same time as the broad beans-, others that put a cinnamon stick or marjoram in addition to the mint , and also those that add a little tomato to the sauce. Some also recommend adding a sprig of thyme, as in a variation of bouquet garni (which Josep Pla called botanic sprig). The purpose of the herbs is not only to flavor the dish: it is also to prevent other things from being flavored later.
Difficulty
The one to peel the beans (if you use them fresh).
Ingredients
For 4-5 people
- 1 kilo of beans already clean (if possible, tender)
- About 200 grams of bacon in two or three strips
- About 200 grams of bull or black sausage
- About 100 grams of sobrasada or chorizo to taste for cooking (optional)
- 2 spring garlic bulbs (or 3 garlic cloves)
- 1 spring onion (or ½ onion)
- 4 sprigs of fresh mint
- 1 bay leaf
- Oil
- Sal
- Pepper
Preparation
- In a pot, brown the diced bacon, the peeled and chopped garlic and onion with a minimal drizzle of olive oil.
- Once sautéed, add the broad beans, the bay leaf, the whole mint -reserving the most tender tips for decoration- and the diced bull or sausage.
- Add about 200 ml of water and salt and pepper.
- Cover with a lid that fits -so that they do not dry out- and leave over low heat until the beans are cooked (the total time depends on the size, keep an eye on it after 15 minutes in case you have to add more water or uncover to evaporate if it already are ready and there is still a lot of liquid).
- Decorate with the reserved mint and serve.
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