Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2–3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to serve
• 6 anchovy fillets (or 100g/3½oz
• smoked streaky bacon or 60g (2¼oz) diced pancetta. If using pork, make sure to fry it off until beginning to crisp before adding your onion)
• 1 large red onion, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 50g (1¾oz) capers
• 1 red chilli, deseeded, or 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 70g (2½oz) pitted Kalamata olives, half left whole, half chopped in half
• 400g (14oz) can chopped tomatoes
• ½ teaspoon white caster sugar or honey (to balance the acidity)
• 700g (1lb 9oz) jar Queen Butter Beans
• large bunch of flat-leaf parsley (about 30g/1oz), chopped

Method

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium–high heat. Add the anchovy fillets, whole, and let them cook off and reduce for about 2 minutes. Once they have cooked down and shrunk slightly, add the onion. You may need to add another tablespoon of olive oil at this point to ensure the onion gets well coated. Continue to stir until the onion has caramelised and is becoming translucent. Add the garlic, capers, chilli and olives and continue to stir for 2 minutes.

Next, add the can of chopped tomatoes and the sugar or honey. Stir and simmer, still over a medium–high heat, for 3–5 minutes. Next, add the beans to the pan, along with their bean stock. Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Serve with chopped parsley and a generous glug of olive oil.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 700g (1lb 9oz) jar Queen Butter Beans
• 250g (9oz) ricotta (or burrata or stracciatella cheese)
• zest of 2 lemons, plus juice to taste
• freshly ground black pepper

For the pesto:

• large handful of pine nuts, toasted (or walnuts)
• large bunch of basil (about 30g/1oz)
• 1 garlic clove
• good handful of grated vegetarian hard cheese or Parmesan (about 25g/1oz)
• 4–5 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to serve

To serve

• juicy charred tomatoes, to top
• fresh rocket salad

Method

To make the pesto, add the pine nuts, basil, garlic and cheese to a blender or food processor, along with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil. Blitz until you have an oozy, purée-like consistency; you may need to add more oil to bind the mixture together. You could also try doing this in a pestle and mortar for a chunkier texture.

Next, prepare the butter beans. In winter, we like serving this as a brothy bean base, so we recommend saving some of the bean stock and warming through with the beans in a pan. For summer, we like it lighter, so simply drain and rinse the beans and don’t bother to warm through.

Spoon the beans on to your serving plate and dollop over the ricotta.

Drizzle over the pesto and scatter over the lemon zest, plus a small squeeze of the juice if you like a real zing! Finish with some cracked black pepper and a final drizzle of olive oil for extra indulgence.

If you’re pressed for time, use shop-bought red or green pesto: it still makes a delicious dish.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to serve
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 1 celery stalk, finely diced
• 500g (1lb 2oz) mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried) (optional)
• 2 small onions or 3 banana shallots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs or oregano (or freshly chopped herbs: rosemary, thyme and parsley)
• ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 300ml (10fl oz) red wine or red vermouth
• 700g (1lb 9oz) jar red beans with their bean stock, or 2 × 400g (14oz) cans red kidney beans, drained, with 200ml (7fl oz) veg stock
• 400g (14oz) can chopped tomatoes
• 1 chicken or veggie stock cube
• 250g (9oz) ricotta (or torn mozzarella, goat’s curd, burrata or queso fresco)
• 500g (1lb 2oz) long pasta 100g (3½oz) Parmesan (or Pecorino, Grana Padano or veggie alternative) grated small bunch of basil (about 15g/½oz), optional sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat the oil in a large, deep saucepan over a medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, mushrooms, bay leaves and onions, along with ½ teaspoon salt. Give the mixture a good stir so that the veggies are coated, then sweat for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are beginning to soften and have shrunk significantly. It may seem like a lot of oil, but when creating a meat-free ragu, you need to bring in the fat from elsewhere, so don’t be afraid of this!

Add the garlic, herbs, and chilli flakes. Increase the heat to medium–high and cook for 1 minute. If there is still some liquid in the pan from the mushrooms, cook for a little longer until this is reduced and some of the base begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Pour in the red wine or vermouth, deglazing any veg that had begun to caramelise at the bottom of the pan. Allow the alcohol to cook off for 5–8 minutes, then reduce the heat to low simmer and add the red beans with their bean or veg stock, breaking them up in your hands as you go to allow some to thicken the sauce. If using unsalted canned beans, make sure to add a good pinch of salt here.

Tip in the chopped tomatoes and mix through. At this point, add the stock cube, breaking it up with your fingers and letting it dissolve in the liquid of the stew. Bubble for 20 minutes for jarred beans, or 26–28 minutes for canned, adding a splash of water if it becomes too dry.

While you’re waiting for the ragu to thicken, spoon the ricotta into a bowl. Lightly mash using a fork, and season with a pinch of salt.

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions (but make sure your water is salty!). Once cooked, drain, then drizzle with some olive oil.

Using tongs, tumble the pasta on to 6 plates. Spoon over the ragu and dollop the ricotta on top. Finish with a generous grating of Parmesan and torn basil leaves (if using).

Bold Beans by Amelia Christie-Miller (£22, Kyle Books) is out now