Cannellini Mash with Tropea Onions & Capers
I made this some time back and for some reason it didn’t make the cut and I didn’t post it. Yesterday while I was trying to re-organise my messy desktop I found the pictures and remembered how tasty this was. I also remembered it takes 20minutes to make so I feel that sharing with you is the right thing to do here.
I have always been a massive fan of capers. We normally will get them from friends that have relatives on one of the Greek Islands. They come in big unbranded jars that you put in the back of your fridge and forget about them until the next time you need them.
Tropea Onions come from Calabria and they are the sweetest and tastiest variety I’ve ever had. The season goes from end of April until July. If you manage to get hold of fresh ones you are definitely in for a treat. When I lived in Italy I used to buy big batches and make jam to enjoy with cheese. The process of slicing that enormous amount of onions is something I wouldn’t wish to my worst enemy. I remember I used to wear my ski goggles to protect my eyes but they didn’t do much apart from making me look ridiculous.
I promise you won’t have to wear any goggles for this one!
Ingredients
1 tin of cannellini beans
Water to cook the beans
2 Tropea onions (or any other sweet variety)
1 handful of capers
Thyme
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
1 tsp of soft dark brown sugar
Salt & Pepper
Step by Step
Drain your cannellini beans and wash them under running water
In a non stick pan add some olive oil and your clove of garlic and sauté for a few minutes
Add the cannellini beans in the pan, season and add the thyme
Cover your cannellini with water and let them simmer until they become really soft
Let them cool down a bit and blend them
In a separate non stick pan sauté the sliced onion in some olive oil
Add the sugar and vinegar and let them cook until soft and translucent
Serve you mash in a plate topped with the onions, capers and a few fresh thyme leaves
Tips & Cheat
You could make this with dried cannellini and it would taste even better, but it will take you much longer to make as you would first have to soak the beans in water for 12 hours and then boil them for a couple of hours. After completing these passages you can follow the recipe above.
You can decide how runny or stiff you want your mash. You can always make this mash runnier by adding water, olive oil or a mix of both. What you can’t do is turn stiff a runny bean mash. For this reason is always better to gradually add water so you can control better the consistency.
If you can’t find Tropea Onions just pick another sweet variety.
Vinegar and sugar will help caramelise the onions. The acid in the vinegar will also make the colour of the onions pop up more. All the reds and purples in food get a colour boost if paired up with an acid ingredient. Unfortunately the same doesn’t apply to greens which tend to become duller when in contact with acid.
