Pasta con Lenticchi

A premium pantry meal, from Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy

I’ve just returned home from a short (relative to the distance traveled) trip to Sydney — more on this soon, since I was again so taken by the vibrant and delicious cafe food there — and between the jet lag, a lingering head cold, and a bare fridge, I needed a simple and nourishing pantry meal to eat. What luck that a copy of Judith Barrett’s Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy had arrived in the mail. (Pronunciation note, for those like me who might need it: it’s three syllables and not four, with a soft G, faa-joh-lee, not fag-ee-oo-lee.) It was originally published in 2004, but Rancho Gordo, the Sonoma-based bean company we all love, has reissued it in a beautiful new edition.

How great is the phrase “bean cuisine”? It’s so fun to say out loud. It must be that every part of the world has its own bean cuisine, and Fagioli illustrates that you can narrow the focus almost infinitely, from country, to region, to city, to neighborhood.

If you’re the bean cuisine type, I think you’re going to like it. The Italian approach to beans is straightforward and ingredient-focused, and Judith Barrett presents it so simply and seductively. Most of the recipes are little more than a paragraph or two of instructions, reiterating the fact that you’re not really manipulating your ingredients so much as coaxing them so that they can shine — old news if you know anything about Italian cuisine.

Things may in fact sound too simple, especially if recipes nowadays seem to always need a twist or gimmick to catch anybody’s attention (guilty as charged!). But here, the result of such simplicity feels to be the honest appreciation of good ingredients, prepared with care.

My first dish was the Tria con Lenticchi, tagliatelle with lentils. While I’ve had lots of bean and pasta dishes before, using lentils hadn’t really occurred to me, and certainly never in such an austere treatment, which Barrett says originates in Bari, a port city on the southern Adriatic coast. Garlic and bay leaf lend some aroma, and there’s a generous amount of olive oil, but otherwise it’s just the pasta, the lentils, and a clever use of the lentil broth. I first read the recipe and thought — should I add some greens? top with a poached egg? finish with some cheese? maybe a pinch of pepper flakes? — but I resisted, and thank goodness, because it doesn’t need any of that.

It’s a recipe that very much aligns with other recipes of the Rancho Gordo universe — elegant and uncluttered — and it’s extra special when made using their new-to-the-shop Puglia Lentils (though any small lentil would do). And what I like best is that’s more of a “lentils with pasta” dish than a “pasta with lentils” one, so it really is hearty and nutritious, and a satisfying, handy thrill as far as pantry dinners go.