White Bean

Serve these hot or at room temperature.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A new twist on the usual bean dip.

Ragoût de petits L
égumes au Parmesan et Vinaigre Balsamique Also nice as a meatless entrée—with some crusty French bread, of course.

Great with veal or roast chicken.

The following antipasto is based on an octopus and cannellini salad served at La Baraonda in Florence.

If you prep all the ingredients ahead of time, this dish takes only minutes to cook.

Giant beans in some form or another are never absent from Greek meze menus. The key to making this dish taste as good as possible is to use high-quality roasted sweet peppers preserved in extra virgin olive oil. I usually make my own oil, and have them on hand. All you need to do is roast the peppers whole under the broiler, let them cool, peel them, and store them in a container in the fridge covered with good olive oil. You can pour a few tablespoons of the pepper-infused oil into the baking dish for added flavor. As for the beans themselves, the trick is to get the texture right. Giant beans need first to be soaked, then boiled, and finally baked. Once done, they should be soft, almost buttery, without being baked to the point that they fall apart.

It doesn’t look or taste like it, but this pizza is low-fat. Each slice has just 346 calories and 4 1/2 grams of fat.

Pair this with frosty glasses of lager.

Begin with chicken soup enriched with tiny pasta and fresh spinach leaves. Thick slices of country bread are perfect with the tuna salad, and tiramisù is the dessert of choice.

Chicory, a bitter leaf most commonly used in salads, mellows as it cooks.

The vegetables can be prepared ahead and finished up to the middle of step 3. Heat for 5 minutes before serving.