Shrimp 'n Beans

This dish doesn't exactly have the most sophisticated name, does it? I suppose you could jazz it up by calling it Gamberetti e Fagioli alla Toscana, since evidently this is a classic Tuscan meal. People dig Tuscany -- it's trendy, you know.

Anyway, it's really important to make this dish with dried beans. You can't just start off with canned beans, even though it would cut the cooking time. The reason is that the fresh sage infuses the water that cooks the beans so that the beans themselves taste like sage. Remember to buy U.S. farmed shrimp, not wild-caught or imported. Bottom trawls used to catch most wild shrimp damage sea floor habitat and unintentionally kill unwanted fish and sea turtles. U.S. fisheries are generally well regulated to prevent this kind of damage.


Tuscan Shrimp and Beans
serves 4

• 2 cups dried white beans (cannellini, navy, pea, Great Northern)
• 20 fresh sage leaves
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 pound shrimp, rinsed, dried, cut into 3-4 pieces each
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Place the beans in a large, deep pot with water to cover. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Skim the foam if necessary. Turn the heat down so the beans simmer. Add the sage and pepper and cover loosely. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the beans begin to soften, about 30 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp. salt and some more pepper. Continue to cook until the beans are very tender, usually at least 1 hour. Add additional water if necessary. Drain the cooking liquid if necessary, then add the garlic, additional salt to taste, and shrimp. Cook over low heat until the shrimp turn pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle with the olive oil and serve.

Pork Fat Rules

Having company over for dinner is something I haven't done enough of this year. There's not much in the world that I find more gratifying than feeding people. Well, even more gratifying is feeding people while watching the Red Sox win Game 5 of the ALCS. Especially if I'm feeding them slow-cooked pork shoulder, white beans with sage, and sweet potato oven fries. With lots of red wine.

So I bought this giant 7.5 pound pork shoulder at my local butcher on Wednesday with the intention of cooking it last night for my guests, my friends Jackie and Stephanie. The only problem was that it was so large that it wouldn't fit in my slow cooker. I ended up cutting off and freezing about a third of it, but even still, we had more meat than we could finish. I've never made pork shoulder before, and boy, that is a fatty piece of meat. Fatty and delicious. We were remarking last night how odd it is that pigs get fat in their shoulders. Not that I'm complaining - as Emeril would say, pork fat rules.


I don't really have recipes for what I made; I was just winging it left and right. Fortunately everything turned out great. Here's the play-by-play:

For the pork shoulder, the night before I wanted to cook it, I roasted 3 big bulbs of garlic for a half hour in a 400-degree oven, then peeled it and put it in a blender with about 2 T each of salt, coriander, and dried rosemary; 1 T each of mustard powder and dried thyme; and about a teaspoon of ground black pepper. After blending it into a paste, I rubbed it all over the pork and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Before I went to class the next morning, I threw it in the slow cooker with just a bit of water in the bottom (1/4 c. maybe) and let it go about 8 hours on low.

For the white beans, I just soaked a half-pound of them overnight, then cooked them with 3 cups of water, a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, and about a tablespoon of chopped fresh sage.

For the sweet potato oven fries, I peeled 3 yams and then cut them into french-fry-sized pieces. I tossed them in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then baked them in a 500-degree oven for 30 minutes. When I served them, I sprinkled some fresh thyme on top.