Rachel Roddy's Recipe for Roman-Style Beans

Bean Recipe Centuries have taught working-class Romans to conjure flavor and goodness from scraps and leftovers, like this traditional recipe for a rich bean and pork stew.

“I Am Sweetbread and oxtail isn’t your thing, so don’t come here.” They're my thing, so I put a ring around the entrance to Trattoria Agustarello in Testaccio in my 2005 Lonely Planet Italy. It wasn't until a month later that I made it there, by which time I knew a little about Testaccio, its second-century hill of broken terracotta pots and its cemetery of dead poets, its contemporary history as a slaughterhouse district, and its particular cuisine. . Butchers and vaccinations (cow men) who worked in the slaughterhouse from the 1880s until the mid-1970s, divided animals into prestige cuts for the wealthy, leaving the lower classes and slaughterhouse workers the scraps and offal, theFifth Quarter, or fifth trimester.

The slaughterhouse may have closed in 1975 and habits are changing, but at Testaccio, fifth-quarter cooking is still alive and well, and nowhere more so than at Trattoria Agustarello. There have been small adjustments to the half-open kitchen and the walls are now a sunny yellow, but otherwise Agustarello feels the same as the first time I went 13 years ago.

Also defying the years is chef/owner Alessandro, who likes his father before him, smokes fine cigars and cooks a menu where – as Lonely Planet noted – “virtually every dish (except pasta) at this old-fashioned trattoria has some correlation to the entrails of an animal”.

If offal isn't your thing, I doubt you've read this far. If it is, and you like tripe cooked in tomato with mint and pecorino cheese, or oxtail simmered with celery, tomato and red wine until it turns the color of a chestnut and falls off the bone, or enjoy the crunch of veal cartilage (think gristle chicken just better) with pickled vegetables, then Agustarello is the place for you.

It's also a place to enjoy classic Roman pastas – gricia, carbonara, amatriciana – whose shape and deep flavor come from guanciale (cured pork cheeks), bitter tangles of chicory or twice cooked chicory, artichokes assadas and a vignarola , or Roman spring. stew of broad beans, artichokes and peas that laugh like Jack Nicholson in the face of my bright green version. It's not food I want to eat all the time, but food I want to eat sometimes.

Alessandro also makes the most delicious beans and pork rinds , beans and pork rinds, which I could not have ordered were it not for the fact that I thought pork rinds it was sausage (which would be cotechino , the New Year's treat that contains a proportion of pork rinds). To make it, pork rind (about 130g, charred and cut hairs from a few millimeters of fat) is boiled in water for 15 minutes, drained, cut into inch-wide strips and then boiled again in clean water. water until soft, which takes about an hour and a half.

The skin is then cut into 2mm thick matchsticks, and mixed with tomato sauce, a little water and cooked cannellini or borlotti beans, then boiled until the sauce is rich. The combination of beans, sauce and pork rinds is a dish that's thick, rich and delicious, and – with bread and lots of red wine – a good thing if that's your kind of thing.

Roman style beans with pork rind

Makes 4
300g dried cannellini or borlotti beans, soaked in water for at least 12 hours
120g pork rind, with less than 2mm fat
Olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
A sprig of parsley finely chopped stem and leaves
300ml passata tomatoes (or a can of tomatoes passed through a food mill) 
Salt and black pepper

Cook the soaked beans in plenty of water until boiling, then reduce to a constant simmer until tender – about an hour, depending on the bean. Set aside to cool in the cooking water.

Meanwhile, cover the pork rind with water, boil for 15 minutes and then drain. Cut the peel into one-inch strips and cover with clean water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until very tender – about an hour and a half. Drain the shell. Once cool enough to handle, cut the peel into sticks 3mm wide and 2,5cm long.

In a large, heavy pan over medium heat, fry the onion, garlic and parsley in a little olive oil until soft and translucent, then add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and a small cup of water. Cook for 10 minutes, then add the cooked and drained beans and simmer for another 15 minutes.