The Strand

Where else to start a tale of 1001 cookbooks than the Strand in New York City?  Boasting over 2.5 million books it is a mecca for bibliophiles and was a mandatory stop during a short stay in NYC.  I immediately gravitated upstairs to the cookbook section.  New cookbooks, out of print cookbooks, general cookbooks, cookbooks organized by cuisine… it was a massive selection.  After a stint by the Mediterranean section and some serious soul searching about how much I could fit in a small carryon (!), I eventually wandered out with a new favorite: a signed copy of “Comfort” (2024) by Yotam Ottolenghi and his co-authors Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, and Tara Wigley¹.

“Comfort” celebrates foods that nourish, evoke nostalgia, and allow for creation in the kitchen.  But as important as the food itself is who that food is associated with, why we crave those specific recipes, and how we indulge in our comfort foods.  As Ottolenghi et al. note, “Cooking – real cooking using real ingredients – offers a natural way to reconnect with the environment, with our fellow human beings, and with ourselves.”  They also link this to “why so many of us have more cookbooks than we’ll even need…”.  Comfort is a powerful driver of our love for such books.  Why do I have a copy of “Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania” by Arthur Shwartz²? Was it the recipe for Struffoli, fried honey-dipped dough balls, that evoked my rosy-hued memories of Christmas in Napoli?  Or “The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage” by Rachel Laudan³.  Did her recipes for Ahi and Tako Poke remind me of the spicy ahi poke I often picked up at Tamura’s in Honolulu, Hawaii after a hard week of work?  Thus, whether it is a specific food that brings happy memories, or a book that inspires communal sharing of nourishment, comfort plays a large part in our love of cooking and eating.

What is your favorite comfort food?  One comforting staple in my pantry is beans.  When sautéed or roasted, beans transform from a humble protein to smooth, creamy, satisfying meal.  Why so satisfying?  Rhiannon Lambert in “The Science of Nutrition” notes that beans can provide a significant amount of your daily requirement for protein and fiber⁴.  And per Harold McGee in “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen”, the bulk of beans are storage cells filled with “solid, hard starch granules and protein bodies”⁵.  This protein and fiber slows the breakdown of carbohydrates into glucose, leading to a lower blood sugar response⁶.  Thus beans are both delicious and a nutritional powerhouse, win-win! 

But back to comfort food.  Ottolenghi et al. use beans in several recipes in “Comfort”.  I was delighted to find his recipe for Butter Beans with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes.  In this recipe, Ottolenghi tosses canned butter beans with roasted tomatoes and sauteed onions, oregano, thyme, fennel, and smoked paprika. 

I was drawn to Ottolenghi et al.’s butter bean recipe as these large beans remind me of another delicious bean dish: Gigantes plaki, Greek gigante-elefantes beans stewed with tomatoes and oregano.  In fact butter beans and gigante beans look very similar.  Both are a pale white-yellow color and very large, approximately 1 inch long.  Are they the same?  Actually, no.  Butter beans are large fava beans of the species Phaseolus vulgaris, whereas gigantes beans are actually a runner bean of the species Phaseolus coccineus L.  Moreover, gigantes are a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) product grown specifically in Kastoria and Florina in the north of Greece⁷.  But can butter beans and gigantes be used interchangeably?  Several authors do note that you can substitute butter beans for gigantes.  And gigantes would likely be delicious in Ottolenghi’s roasted cherry tomato recipe.

How to cook the delicious gigantes bean?  Aglaia Kremezi in her book “The Foods of Greece”⁸ presents Gigantes Skordati.  In this recipe gigantes are baked with a mixture of onions, chili pepper, garlic, oregano, wine, dill, and mustard.  And in “The Glorious Foods of Greece”⁹ Diane Kochilas presents Giant beans baked the way they do them in Prespes.  Here gigantes are again baked, but this time with onion and dried sweet red peppers.  In both recipes the beans are roasted until they are very tender and creamy.  Personally, I prefer gigantes baked in the Gigantes plaki style.  There are numerous “plaki” variants.  These include different vegetables used (just onions, or a mirepoix of onions, carrots, and celery) and spices added (oregano, bay leaves, cinnamon, dill).  My recipe is as follows:

Gigantes plaki

1 lb. dried gigantes beans, preferably sourced from northern Greece

1 tbsp. oregano

¼ c. olive oil

½ large sweet onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. oregano

¼ + ¼ c. chopped fresh dill

2 c. good quality crushed tomatoes

½ c. fresh parsley

Soak the dried beans in water for 8 hours or overnight.  Drain the beans, then add them to a large pot and fill with water until the beans are covered by 2 inches.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for an hour.  While the beans are simmering, skim off the foam that forms on the surface of the water.  After one hour strain the beans and reserve 2 cups of the cooking liquid.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

While the beans are cooking sauté the onions and celery in the olive oil over medium heat until the onions become translucent and the celery soft.  Add the garlic and fry for another minute.  Add 1 tbsp. of oregano, the salt, and ¼ c. of the dill ,and stir to combine for 30 seconds.  Add the crushed tomato and the reserved 2 c. of cooking liquid to the mix, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Finally, layer the beans in a 9×13 inch baking pan and pour the tomato sauce over the beans.  Stir gently to combine.  Cover the casserole with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour or until the beans are soft and most of the liquid has evaporated.  Add a little more water if needed during the cooking to keep the beans moist.  Uncover the beans and cook for another 30 minutes.

Sprinkle the beans with the remaining ¼ c. dill and the parsley and stir to combine.  Serve with feta and crusty bread!

References

1.  Ottolenghi, Y., Goh, H., Lochmuller, V. & Wigley, T. Comfort. (Ten Speed Press, New York, NY, 2024).

2.  Schwartz, A. Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania. (HarperCollins, New York, NY, 1998).

3.  Laudan, R. The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage. (University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI, 1996).

4.  Lambert, R. The Science of Nutrition. (DK Publishing, New York, NY, 2021).

5.  McGee, H. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. (Scribner, New York, NY, 2004).

6.  Jenkins, D. J., Wolever, T. M., Taylor, R. H., Barker, H. M. & Fielden, H. Exceptionally low blood glucose response to dried beans: comparison with other carbohydrate foods. Br Med J 281, 578–580 (1980).

7.  Thomatou, A.-A. et al. Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis for the Geographic Origin Discrimination of Greek Beans “Gigantes-Elefantes” (Phaseolus coccineus L.). Foods 13, 2107 (2024).

8.  Kremezi, A. The Foods of Greece. (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, NY, 1999).

9.  Kochilas, D. The Glorious Foods of Greece. (HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2001).

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