Fagioli Al Fiasco, White Beans in Bottle – Tuscany

Perhaps your new favorite bean dish:

Alice Vollenweider: Florentines like nothing better than white beans, and in all of Italy there is no city where they are prepared more deliciously than here. They are not cooked uncharitably in salted water, which is drained off at the end, but they are made to soak up their cooking liquid little by little and lose none of their inherent flavor.

The bulbous Chianti bottles have given the housewives of Florence the idea of a preparation called “al fiasco”, which is not only original, but actually the most gentle and tender way to make white beans. You can find “fagioli al fiasco” on every menu in Florence, and you don’t necessarily need the gentle glow of a charcoal fire, but you can cook them in the same way in a moderately warm oven.

The beans are soaked for one night. The next day, remove the straw from a bottle of Chianti, rinse the bottle thoroughly, pour in the soaked and drained beans and add the oil, water, sage leaves and garlic cloves. The bottle must not be more than 2/3 full and is closed with a stopper, a piece of which is cut away to allow the steam to escape. In the oven, cook the beans in the bottle at a low medium heat (190 °C) for about 3 1/2 hours. As a last step, the liquid must be completely absorbed by the beans.

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