Cranberry beans with sweet leeks and pasta

I first came across these pale, pink speckled beans at a farmers' market. 

    "Bet you've never seen those before", said the farmer.

He wasn't right, but I didn't say so. I used to see them in a supermarket called Sainsbury's in the UK, a wondrous place full of exotic and unusual things. It was certainly true that I had never bought or cooked them before, so my little white lie wasn't so bad. I bought a brown paper bag full of them that day, along with a recipe he gave me on a small piece of paper which I followed a few days later and then promptly lost not long after that. I vaguely remember that I thought it seemed a strange recipe. How could beans be described as creamy? The technique involved fragrancing the cooking water with aromatics such as bay leaves and whole garlic cloves and gently simmering the beans for as long as an hour. I was dubious as to whether it would work, but of course it did and the beans were the creamiest I have ever tasted. When I saw these beans for sale again at a different farm market, I snapped them up, hoping to recreate the magic alchemy from before.

Unfortunately, the beans don't keep their pretty flecked colours when cooked, turning a creamy white, the equivalent of magnolia paint in the food world, but, if they are cooked with patience and a little attention, the texture and taste will be brighter and fresher. I aspire to do justice to rare and precious ingredients like this, not mess them up, so a search for some ideas on the Internet seemed sound. Many recipes suggested a technique for cooking not dissimilar to what that little piece of paper said, definitely cooked in water with flavourful stock ingredients and as for that long cooking time, all seemed to agree.

One recipe title that really caught my eye simply said : cranberry beans, ricotta and Parmesan, enough to inspire me into creating a pasta dish full of meaty beans, their creaminess highlighted with cream cheese and their delicate flavour enhanced with Vermouth, onion and garlic. Beans with pasta may seem like a carbohydrate overload and you would be forgiven for letting the word stodgy enter your mind. I'm not going to contradict too much, this is a fairly heavy pasta, but once in a while, I think that's OK.

Recipe : Cranberry bean pasta with cream cheese

1 leek, white part only, washed and finely shredded

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1 clove garlic, finely sliced

2 tsp oil and 2 tsp butter

1/4 cup dry Vermouth or white wine

1/2 cup water

2 sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

5 sage leaves

1/2 cup podded cranberry beans

1/4 cup greens such as kale or chard

2 tbsp Philadelphia or other cream cheese

1 tbsp sour cream

salt and pepper

a  few sprinkles of paprika

Parmesan cheese

Spaghetti for 2

Heat the oil and butter in a pan over medium heat and add the leek, spring onions, garlic, thyme and sage. Stir well, cover, reduce the heat to low and let the vegetables saute gently for as much as an hour to soften and sweeten. 

Add the Vermouth, bay leaf, beans and water, bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for another 50 minutes or until the beans are soft and taste creamy. By this point the water should have evaporated a little, but not enough for the dish. Boil rapidly, uncovered, for about 5 minutes until most of the liquid has gone and you have a thick mixture.

Add the cream cheese, sour cream and kale and season well with salt and pepper. Mix well and let the mixture gently simmer until the greens have wilted slightly. 

Mix well with some cooked spaghetti, adding a little more butter if you like and serve sprinkled with Parmesan and paprika.