(upbeat music) - Beans and greens or
Scarole e Fagioli in Italian is a simple but hearty
dish that is popular in and around Pittsburgh. And that's because in the 19th century, many people from southern
Italy immigrated to Pittsburgh for jobs in the steel industry. Now this simple recipe has
withstood the test of time because it's inexpensive,
healthy, and delicious. And today, Christie's gonna
show us how it's done. - Julia, this is one of
those classic recipes that's born out of necessity, but then really takes on
an identity of its own. Braising or wilting the greens increases their tenderness and
minimizes their bitterness. And you can really make beans and greens with all sorts of greens. Broccoli rabe, spinach. Today we're using escarole. - Oh, it's my favorite. - It's great. It is. But first, we're gonna start by building kind of an aromatic base
to enhance the flavors. - Okay. - [Christie] So I have two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and I'll heat this over medium high heat just until it's shimmers. - Now, I like that you're
using a nice big pot because one thing about making this dish is you start with a lot of
greens and it fills the pot, but they wilt down. - They certainly do. So we'll build our savory base, starting with one onion
that I've chopped fine. And I'll add half a teaspoon of pepper and half a teaspoon of salt. Now some beans and greens start with meats or other vegetables, sometimes peppers. We really wanted to keep this simple. - [Julia] Yeah, I've seen
recipes that sometimes add tomatoes, they sometimes
add sausage or meat, or even banana peppers. But it looks like you're
going straight old school. - This is old school. We're gonna let the flavors of the greens and the beans really stand out. So I'm just gonna saute
these until they've softened and they're starting to brown, and that'll take about
five to seven minutes. In the meantime, let's
talk about escarole. - That is a beautiful head of escarole. - Isn't it? It's gorgeous. This is about a pound. One head should yield that. It's kind of loose, and so you really wanna
make sure you wash it well. First I'm gonna prep it, so I'm gonna cut out the core and it just sort of falls open. You might have a little
bit of the inner core that you wanna chop out. - You can even see the
dirt down in that leaf, and that's why you like
to prep it, then wash it. You really get clean. - Right. Because you can't, it's hard to get deep down in there just by by sticking the
whole head under the water. So I'm just gonna cut
this into two inch pieces. Certainly not super precise, but that will make the cooking more even. And I'm gonna start loading
this up into my salad spinner. - You know, I didn't own a
salad spinner for a long time cause I thought they were
just a waste of space. I used to try to dry the
lettuce leaves in all manners. I used towels, I used a pillowcase. (laughing) Oh, and then I got a salad spinner. I was like, why did I
hold off for so long? I now have three salad spinners. I think they're that important. (laughing) - No, they're great. And we don't have to get them
super dry for this recipe because we're gonna be
braising the greens. All right, so I'm gonna
take this over to the sink. We'll give it a good wash and drain it. - I'll fill up the bowl
with some cold water, and I'll just start swooshing
as soon as we get some water in there to kind of dislodge
any of the sediment or dirt that's lodged between the leaves. So we can just lift it out
and give it a few shakes to get off any residual water. And we're ready to spin. So this is ready to go. - [Julia] It's great. - [Christie] Take a look at those onions. We're getting some nice browning. I have a few more aromatics to add. Of course a little garlic, right? I have three cloves. - Just a little! (laughing) - [Christie] Three
cloves that I've minced. I have a teaspoon of chopped rosemary. - Oh nice. - So nice with white beans. And then half a teaspoon
of red pepper flakes. To say hello to us. - Half a teaspoon? - Yes. Again, I mean,
this is an Italian dish. Southern Italian, right? It's gonna have a little kick. We just wanna saute those
until we can smell them, about 30 seconds. Did you get the rosemary? - Now I do. Oh, that smells good. - All right. Final ingredient before we
get the greens in there, is half a cup of chicken broth. And this is just gonna
give us a nice savory base. It's gonna flavor the greens. It's also gonna flavor the beans. - [Julia] That's actually
not a lot of broth. I've seen recipes that add cups, almost turns the dish into a soup. So that's a really
restrained amount of broth. - It is. It is. And I'm actually gonna
turn my heat down now to about medium low. And I'm gonna add my greens. Now figuring out the timing
for this was really important, because we want the greens to get tender but we don't want them to turn to mush. So cover this. Let it simmer on medium low for between six and eight minutes until
the greens just start to wilt. And I'll go in there and
stir it every so often so I can keep an eye on them. Right, it's been about eight minutes. Let's take a peek. - [Julia] Oh, nice. - [Christie] Yeah. - Just wilted down. - Just wilted. We're just kind of braising in that broth and all those wonderful flavors. So now we can add the beans. So this is one can, a 15
ounce can of cannellini beans that I've rinsed and drained. And we're gonna let this
hang out a little bit uncovered now for about five minutes. So the greens have wilted, but they're not quite tender yet. So we're gonna give
them a little more time. And we want the beans to have time to hang out in that chicken
broth with all those flavors to really infuse and taste wonderful. - [Julia] Makes sense. - [Christie] So just five more minutes. This smells so good. So we can cut the heat. And I'm gonna add some Parmesan cheese. We have, we have plenty of parm. Right now I'm gonna add a quarter cup. - [Julia] That's how my mother cooks. Right before she serves anything, shredded parm goes in there. - [Christie] Ah. Get it in. - [Julia] Yeah. Well you know what? It thickens up sauces. It thickens up soups, adds a
little body, adds some flavor. - [Christie] Right, because
it was just broth in there. And any moisture from the greens. So it does give this sauce a little body, gives the whole thing a little body. And obviously some great flavor. I'm gonna just taste it to see if we need any salt or pepper. I just wanna taste it first. (laughing) Mm, no. Woo! And you get those red pepper flakes. - Gotcha. I saw the
red pepper flake dance. - The red pepper flake shimmy? All right, if I lift this up
do you mind scooping some out? - [Julia] Sure. - [Christie] Good? - [Julia] That looks beautiful. Is that my bowl? (laughing) I could easily eat all of that. This is easily one of my favorite dishes. - [Christie] I know, for
lunch, for dinner, as a side. I mean I just have this
and some crusty bread, or some grilled bread. - That sounds delicious. - But we're gonna guild
the lily a little bit here. We're gonna add a little more parm. Our recipe says a quarter cup, but- - Plus extra for serving. - It's just a, it's just a guide really. That part of it I think
is kind of a guide. - [Julia] I love it when you
put parm over something hot and you see the parm start to melt. It's gonna be a good dinner. - It's one of those days
I really love my job. (laughing) And we'll drizzle a little more extra virgin olive oil over the top. - [Julia] This is when you
wanna pull out the good stuff, the olive oil that has a
really good fruity flavor. - [Christie] Now, may I serve you? - [Julia] Absolutely. - [Christie] That broth
that collects on the bottom, that's just- - [Julia] You're gonna spoon a little bit over the top, right? - [Christie] You bet. - Oh, I'm so happy right now. - Sometimes this is served over
a bed of like fresh greens. It's just one way to serve it. But I kind of feel like
this is just a simple, I mean, you seem to be happy. - This is delicious. I really love the little
bit of rosemary in there. I've never had that in
beans and greens before. It has a lovely fragrance. It really brings out the
flavor of the escarole. I also love that you use canned beans. I'm a big fan of canned beans
'cause they're so convenient. It makes a dish like this come together in a snap for a weeknight. - And cooking the beans in the broth. And with the aromatics,
they almost taste like they've been cooking
there for a long time. - They sure do. Christie, this is delicious. - Thanks, Julia. - Thank you. - I'm so happy to make this for you. - So there you have it. If you wanna make a classic
recipe for beans and greens, start by using escarole. Cover the pot to start, then finish with the pot uncovered and finish with some grated
Parmesan for body and flavor. from Cook's Country, the Pittsburgh classic beans and greens. - Thanks for watching Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen. So what'd you think? Leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make. Or just say hi. - Now you can find
links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description. - And don't forget to
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