Borlotti Beans Stew with Soft Cooked Polenta Istrian Recipe

November 23, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, All year round recipe, Autumnal dish, Autumnal recipe, casserole, child friendly dish, child friendly meal, dinner, family friendly dish, family friendly meal, Healthy, healthy mael, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, main course, main dish, Nutritious, Nutritious dish, Rustic dish, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, stew, supper, Winter dish, Winter recipe

Borlotti beans stew with soft cooked polenta is one of the most humble, hearty and comforting dishes that originated as peasant dish. It is full of flavour, makes a robust meal, and is made with simple, inexpensive ingredients.

This stew is one of the staple dishes of Slovenian Istra, and locals call it Fežu in Palenta in the local dialect, and is similar to a typical Istrian bean soup Pasta e Fasoi, but is a distinct dish that goes back generations.

My nona very modestly confessed that her grandmother's bean stew was quite renowned as the best in the village, and the family thought so too. She used their own produced borlotti beans that they harvested at the end of the summer and dried, so the beans could be used during colder month to make this warming stew. These days if you ask for this dish in restaurants you are likely to be disappointed since it is exclusively made in households. It is a bit of a hidden treasure among other dishes belonging to what the Italians call cucina povera.

This quintessentially Istrian bean stew is flavoured with Istrian Pestat or Taca, a paste made with lard or pancetta, garlic, fresh flat leaf parsley and sea salt. Pestat does not make the stew greasy, and is also a fantastic spread on fresh rustic crunchy bread, or a slice of toasted bread.

My nona told me that using a pestat was a way of enriching the flavour of what could potentially be bland tasting stews and soups. Pestat was used instead of precious cuts of various meats, that would otherwise give the most wonderful taste, but was reserved for special occasions and most certainly not added to everyday meals.

This incredibly understated dish is a big hit every single time.

Recipe

Borlotti Beans Stew

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

500g dry borlotti beans, soaked
1 medium potato (about 200g), peeled and cut in half
1 carrot (about 70g), peeled
½ bay leaf, fresh or dry
100g pancetta (can use already sliced pancetta)
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and pressed
fresh flat leaf parsley, a handful (about 7g), finely chopped
sea salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil, for serving, optional

Soft cooked Polenta

Ingredients

250g polenta
1250 ml water
sea salt

Method

Put dry borlotti beans in a big bowl, add plenty of cold water and leave them to soak overnight.

The following day drain them in a colander and rinse well under the cold running water.

Cut the pancetta into small pieces and transfer into a small food processor, add crushed garlic, finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley and a pinch of sea salt. Blitz all the ingredients together until you obtain a paste like consistency.

Put the soaked beans in a big pot, add the pancetta paste, potato, carrot, bay leaf, a generous pinch of sea salt and a bit of black pepper.

Add about 2 litres and a half of cold water.

The pancetta paste will most probably float in a water as a big lump, do not worry, this is normal.

Take a fork and break the lump of pancetta paste pressing it against the wall of the pan until you break it completely and give a good stir, so all the ingredients mix together.

Bring to boil, turn the heat down, partially cover with the lid and cook on a very gentle heat for about 2 hours, giving a stir now and again.

After this time the bean stew should have a nice velvety consistency that is not too liquidy or too thick.

Serve hot with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, with some rustic crunchy bread, or as it is traditionally served, on a bed of soft cooked polenta.

Soft Polenta

Put the water in a medium-size sauce pan and bring to boil, add a pinch of sea salt.

Turn the heat down and start slowly pouring the polenta into a simmering water, whisking constantly until there are no lumps and the mixture thickens. Polenta cooks in minutes.

Polenta thickens as it sits, if you are not serving it immediately, you can reheat it by whisking in a bit more water or stock to make it smooth and creamy again.

Just a thought

For this recipe, instead of making pancetta paste, you can use a piece of ham hock, pig's trotters, a whole piece of pancetta, and add crashed garlic and finely chopped fresh parsley separately into a cold water together with the beans and other ingredients.

For this recipe it is very important that all the ingredients are added to cold water, especially the pancetta paste that will, during the cooking process just simply melt into a stew, giving it the most wonderful aroma and delicious taste, without making it greasy or fatty.

On the contrary, if you add the pancetta paste when the water is already very warm or hot, the pancetta paste will not dissolve but will stay in a lump, which you can break into smaller pieces, but the final dish should not have bits of pancetta paste.

Borlotti bean stew will keep in the fridge for a few days and freezes very well. Keep in mind that when you defrost it, or simply refrigerate it and then reheat , it will most probably thicken up quite a bit. You can keep it thick or or just dilute it by simply adding a bit more water in order to obtain the desired consistency.

Wine suggestion

Salento Rosato IGP "Coré" 2021 - Coppi

Home made Baked Beans Istrian Recipe

Beans and Sardines

January 26, 2022 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Appetizers, Autumnal dish, Autumnal recipe, brunch, Central European recipes, Eastern European recipes, Easy recipe, Healthy, healthy mael, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, main course, main dish, Nutritious dish, Nutritious, one pot meal, one pot meat recipe, Rustic dish, Side Dishes, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Small bites, Starters, stew, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter dish, Winter recipe, casserole

Home made baked beans is one of the most humble staple dishes in Slovenian Istra, the peninsula located at the head of the Adriatic Sea. This dish is nutritious, as full of fibre and protein, wholesome, super delicious, cheap and simple to make, and what it may lack in appearance it most certainly makes up in flavour.

This dish is classic comfort food, quintessentially rustic, a truly peasant food since it used to be made by farmers during colder months to help them to get warm, and to partially replenish their energy used up during the very hard, physical and laborious jobs required in the fields during the day.

This borlotti beans casserole is made with beautifully caramelized onions and sautéed pancetta and flavoured with garlic, bay leaf and a touch of tomato paste, it is typically served with polenta or crusty bread and a fantastic companion to grilled meats.

My nona grew up with this dish, as borlotti beans were consistently cooked as a part of the Mediterranean diet, the recipe was passed down to my father who adored baked beans and would prepare them regularly when there was a family barbecue, normally in such a huge quantities that we would eat them on a toasted bread for days to follow, nobody seemed to mind or complained about it, on the contrary...

This home made baked beans are known in standard Slovenian as Praženi Fižol, but the locals would refer to this dish simply in the dialect as Pražen Fežu.

This very traditional dish calls for dry borlotti beans, but you can use canned beans to cut down on time without compromising the deliciousness of the final dish, it can also be made with or without the meat component, in which case, this version makes an excellent vegetarian and vegan meal option.

I am sharing here the traditional, local family recipe which uses only few simple ingredients, however, you can take this dish slightly off the beaten track and jazz it up a bit by adding few chilli flakes or powdered sweet or smoked Hungarian paprika, which will give a more “Imperial” and “Balcanic” flavour. My father attempted this only once and was severely told off by his mother, my famous nona, for “corrupting” the traditional recipe making it too “exotic” for her to eat, this version of baked beans, although very delicious indeed, was never cooked again by my father in her presence...

Whether you go for a traditional or more exotic version of the recipe for home made baked beans, give it a go, a store bought tinned baked beans might just become a thing of a past...

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

500g dry borlotti beans, (or other dry beans of your choice) soaked overnight or for about 8 hours
For this recipe you can also use tinned borlotti beans or other tinned beans of your choice 4 x 400g)
1 medium onion, (about 130g) finely chopped
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
100g pancetta, (smoked or unsmoked) thinly sliced and chopped
You can replace pancetta for smoked or unsmoked bacon or lardons
1 Tsp white all purpose flour
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves (fresh or dry)
sea salt
black pepper

Method

Place dry borlotti beans, or other dry beans of your choice, in a big bowl, cover completely with plenty of cold water and soak for about 8 hours or overnight.

Drain soaked beans in a colander and rinse with cold running water.

Transfer soaked beans in a pot.

Add plenty of cold water, to completely cover the beans, a bay leaf and bring to boil.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook the beans for about 1 -1 ½ hour or until the beans are fully cooked and soft but not falling apart. Skim any foam if it rises to the surface. Towards the end of cooking time add sea salt.

Fish out the bay leaf and discard. Turn the heat off, leaving the pot with the beans in their liquid on the stovetop for later use.

Put extra virgin olive oil in a fairly large and deep skillet or casserole dish (both preferably non stick). Add finely chopped onion, crushed garlic, finely sliced and chopped pancetta or similar, if using, and sauté on a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions become soft and translucent.

Add the flour and stir well with the onion, garlic and pancetta mixture.

With the slotted spoon, (or a regular big serving spoon) transfer the beans to the skillet with the onion, garlic and pancetta mixture.

Pour the liquid from the beans into the skillet to completely cover the beans. If you are left with more liquid from the beans as needed at this stage, keep it aside and do not discard it. You might use it later on, if the beans during the cooking process get too dry. On the contrary, if you end up using all the liquid from the beans, and the beans get too dry, you can simply use water.

Add sea salt, black pepper, bay leaf, tomato paste and bring to a gentle boil.

Lower the heat and gently simmer for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Just a thought

Home made baked beans are suitable for freezing.

Wine suggestion

Schiava Alto Adige DOC "Kolbenhofer" 2020 - Hofstater

Jota – Sauerkraut, beans and potato stew Istrian Recipe

Beans and Sardines

November 10, 2021 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Central European recipes, dinner, Eastern European recipes, Easy recipe, entrée course, healthy mael, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, main course, main dish, Mitteleuropean recipes, Nutritious dish, one pot meal, recipe from Northern Ital, Rustic dish, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Soups, Starters, stew, supper, Vegan, Vegetarian, Autumnal recipe, Autumnal dish, Winter recipe, Winter dish

Jota, pronounced 'yota,' is a very old recipe for a stew made of sauerkraut, dried borlotti beans, potatoes and some kind of pork cuts. It is believed that the word jota derives from Celtic word “jutta” indicating a liquidy soup.

Jota is filling and makes a perfect choice for a comfort food when the first cold starts as it will warm your body and soul. It is really easy to make, healthy, inexpensive, and it has become a staple and much loved dish in Slovenian households. Jota, being also very nutritious, is served in nurseries, schools, care homes for elderly, and family run informal restaurants, as well as being one of the most requested dishes from hikers and skiers in mountainside restaurants.

This hearty stew is incredibly humble and proper peasant food as it was born out of necessity and from what was available. My paternal nona told me that most of the households in the countryside, where she was growing up (a little village called Marezige just a few kilometres from the coastal town Koper), would have a wooden barrel of home made sauerkraut, sacks of potatoes and dried borlotti beans, and if you were lucky enough, a pig or a few pigs that would eventually get slaughtered and provided a very precious meat. The better cuts of pork meat were used for drying and curing and for what was considered a very rare and luxurious roasts while less prestigious cuts were put in soups and stews to enrich the flavour.

This very poor dish comes from the region of Primorska near the Adtriatic Sea and it is considered a quintessentially, one of the most famous Istrian peasant dishes, also enormously popular in Trieste and province of Trieste in Italy.

According to Anna Gosetti della Salda, in her book, Le ricette regionali Italiane, Jota (or Jote) was widely made over the whole region of Friuli (Italy), the area bordering with Slovenia, but towards the end of last century the use of jota was limited almost exclusively to the Valli di Gorto and Pesarina in Carnia.

The use of sauerkraut in all these regions, referred to as kapus in the Istrian dialect, is a testimony to how strongly the Austro-Hungarian Empire influenced the dishes in these areas.

Like with most dishes in the culinary world, it is no surprise that there are some variations in the recipe for Jota as well. The most common variation of Jota is without potatoes, and instead, a bit of flour is used to thicken the soup, and another common variation is making jota using sour turnip (called kisla repa in Slovenian).

In some variations, also used by both my mother and my nona, besides the use of different pork cuts, pešto or taca (smooth paste made with pancetta, crushed garlic and fresh, very finely chopped parsley) would be used. This was done, once again, to boost the flavour of the dish.

In some parts of Slovenia that are geographically closer to Hungary, a small quantity of powdered smoked sweet Hungarian paprika will be added to jota.

Before serving this sauerkraut stew, different cuts of pork, that have been cooked in jota, are removed from the bone, sometimes shredded and then returned and mixed into a soup. It is also very common to remove the meats from the soup and serve it later as a separate course.

Different cuts of pork can be used to enrich the flavour of this stew, but it is equally delicious without the meaty element and so it makes a lovely vegetarian and vegan meal.

My nona also “jokingly” shared with me, that to make a really good jota you need three days. The first day for soaking the beans, the second day for cooking Jota and the third for eating it, and enjoying it after it has rested, and all the flavours had a chance to fully develop. It is up to you whether you want to follow my nona three day rule.

I do, no wonder it turns out delicious...

Here I am sharing my family recipe for jota.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

300g dry borlotti beans, soaked overnight or least for 4 hours
650g -1kg sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
(I am giving you an approximate amount of sauerkraut to be used in this recipe as it can be flexible. The amount you use will depend on what you can find in your local food store. Sauerkraut is normally sold in either glass jars or sometimes in sealed plastic bags and they will indicate on the label both total net weight (with the liquid) and drained weight, and the latter is the weight you need to look for.
For this recipe I bought a glass jar of sauerkraut with total weight of 680g and 650g drained weight which is the amount of sauerkraut I used for the soup).
2 bay leaves, fresh or dry
500g or more, pork ribs (can use ham hocks or similar)
100-200g g smoked bacon lardons (can use smoked cubed pancetta, a slab of bacon or pancetta, chopped strips of smoked bacon or similar)
(The use of combination of smoked and unsmoked meat element is quite important, as it really gives that traditional and typical Jota flavour, but it is also very flexible. You can, if you prefer, only use unsmoked meats or all smoked for a deeper smoky flavour. Traditionally a bone or outer rind of dry cured ham would be used in order not to waist anything, and it is also packed full of flavour.
few black peppercorns, 4-6
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
3 fairly big potatoes about 600-800g, peeled and cubed
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
sea salt

Method

There are three simple stages to make jota.

Stage 1

Drain previously soaked beans in a colander, rinse with cold running water and drain again.

Transfer the beans to a very big pot (5 litre at least, where jota will be cooked), add the meats, bay leaf and 5 litre of cold water. Bring to boil over high heat, turn the heat down to a medium low and cook the beans, partially covered with the lid for about 1 hour until the beans are just soft. Skim any foam that rises to the surface, you might have to repeat this process few times.

Do not add sea salt at this point as this will make the skin of the beans hard causing them to crack during the cooking.

Stage 2

Place the sauerkraut in a colander and drain, rinse briefly but thoroughly with cold running water and drain again.

Transfer the sauerkraut in a pan, add a pinch of salt, peppercorns, crashed garlic, bay leaf, olive oil and cold water just enough to cover the sauerkraut.

Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for about 30 minutes. After this time, transfer the sauerkraut to a big bean pot.

Stage 3

Peel, wash, cube the potatoes and place them in pan. Cover completely with water, bring to boil, turn the heat down and cook for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft when pierced with the tip of a knife.

Drain the potatoes in a colander or with the slotted spoon transfer the potatoes to a large plate or bowl. With the back of the fork coarsely mash half of the potatoes and leave the other half cubed.

Transfer coarsely mashed and cubed potatoes in a big pot with beans.

Partially cover with a lid the big pot with beans, sauerkraut and potatoes and continue cooking on a gentle heat for another hour. All three elements will mix and blend together and the soup will start thickening. Taste and adjust seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The soup should be quite thick but still have enough liquid to be able to ladle it nicely on the plate.

If jota gets too thick just add a bit of water to dilute it.

When jota is cooked, depending on what type of meats you use, take the meat of the bones, discard skin and bones and transfer pieces of shredded meat to the soup if you wish.

Discard the bay leaves before serving jota hot with a nice piece of crunchy bread.

Just a thought

Jota will keep well in a fridge for few days and is suitable for freezing.

If jota gets too thick, simply dilute it adding a bit of water, bring to boil and serve hot.

Wine suggestion

Venezia Giulia Pinot GrigioIGT 2019 – Azienda Agricola Pierpaolo Pecorari