Sage and sherry beans with a Parmesan crust

Eleanor Steafel
·2-min read
Sherry beans side dish
Whatever the roast, the beans provide that extra starch you didn’t realise you needed, and a welcome tang from the sherry

A roast dinner is a strange plate of food when you think about it. Multiple distinct ingredients, all cooked separately and without much tying them to the other items they’ll meet on the plate, all brought together in a chaotic mound.

The one slightly more rogue side dish that, for the past couple of years, I have been serving with a roast dinner is a bubbling pan of these beans. I’ll tweak the flavours depending on what the centrepiece is going to be. If it’s lamb, I’ll add a couple of anchovies in there too and swap the sage for rosemary. If it’s a chicken, I might start by browning some finely chopped mushrooms and finish the beans with tarragon and crème fraîche.

Overview

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

1 hr

Serves

8

Ingredients

  • olive oil (for frying)

  • 1 onion, sliced

  • 2 celery sticks, finely chopped

  • 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

  • 1 small bunch of sage, (stalks removed, leaves finely shredded)

  • 2 tsp fennel seeds

  • 250ml dry sherry

  • 3 x 700g jars white beans (I like to use Bold Beans)

  • juice and zest of 1 lemon

  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar

  • 300g fresh breadcrumbs

  • 90g Parmesan, grated

Method

Step 1

Set a large lidded pan with a good glug of olive oil over a low-medium heat. Add the onion (sliced) and 2 celery sticks (finely chopped) and a big pinch of salt. Pop the lid on and cook until completely soft, stirring occasionally to make sure they don’t burn. This will take 12-15 minutes, maybe longer.

Step 2

Add the 2 garlic cloves, 1 small bunch of sage and 2 tsp fennel seeds and cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Then add the 1 tbsp sherry and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add the 3 x 700g beans (along with any liquid from the jar), the lemon juice and zest, the 1 tbsp sherry vinegar and some seasoning. Stir, put the lid on and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes.

Step 3

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6. In a bowl mix the 300g breadcrumbs with the 90g Parmesan.

Step 4

Transfer the beans into an oven proof dish. Top with the crumbs and drizzle a little oil over the top. Bake for 25 minutes until the crumbs are golden and the bean liquor is bubbling up around the edges.

Step 5

Leave to sit and settle for a couple of minutes before serving.

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