Cheesy White Bean-Tomato Bake

By Ali Slagle

Published March 18, 2023

  • John Kernick for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
15 minutes
Rating
5(18,388)
Comments
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For those of you who love lasagna's edges, where sticky tomato meets crisp cheese, this whole dish is for you — even the middle. A tube of tomato paste here mimics the deep flavors of sun-dried tomato. Frying a few generous squeezes caramelizes the tomato's sugars and saturates the olive oil, making a mixture that's ready to glom onto anything you stir through it. Here, it’s white beans, though you could add in kale, noodles, even roasted vegetables. Then, all that’s left to do is dot it with cheese and bake until it’s as molten or singed as you like. Serve with bread and a bitter-green salad.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

  • 3 fat garlic cloves, thinly sliced

  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste

  • 2 (15-ounce) cans white beans (such as cannellini or Great Northern) or chickpeas, drained and rinsed

  • ½ cup boiling water

  • Salt and black pepper

  • ⅓ pound mozzarella, coarsely grated (about 1 ⅓ cups)

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

50 grams carbs; 29 milligrams cholesterol; 489 calories; 12 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 22 grams fat; 11 grams fiber; 1001 milligrams sodium; 24 grams protein; 2 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 475 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Fry the garlic until it’s lightly golden, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste (be careful of splattering) and fry for 30 seconds, reducing the heat as needed to prevent the garlic from burning.

  2. Step 2

    Add the beans, water and generous pinches of salt and pepper and stir to combine. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top, then bake until the cheese has melted and browned in spots, 5 to 10 minutes. If the top is not as toasted as you’d like, run the skillet under the broiler for a minute or 2. Serve at once.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
18,388 user ratings
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Comments

Barb Cone

It’s so worth it in a recipe where beans are the major ingredient, to use dried beans instead of canned one. Dried beans have a lovely firm texture and great taste. Buy some dried beans, rinse and dump what you need for your recipe into big saucepan of cold water and let sit overnight. Drain the water, add fresh water and simmer until tender. If you find you have a few too many cooked beans, you can freeze the extra in baggies to add to soups, chili etc.

mrs_garver

I doubled the tomato paste and garlic and added a chopped yellow onion, drained/chopped San Marzano tomatoes, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Delicious!

meghan

Would recommend upping the amount of tomato paste slightly to enhance the flavor!

mainemom

any suggestions about how to get the tomato paste to blend with the olive oil? for me it just clumps up.

Renee’

This is my 2nd time making this and it’s so good. This time around I added a bit more tomato paste and I use a really high quality paste in a tube. I added some anchovy paste as well. Since it’s summer I picked some fresh basil and rosemary from my garden and sprinkled on some fresh grated parm as well. I made the bitter greens salad from the site to serve alongside the beans and french baguette.

Aaron Fernstrom

Wow! We made as written and it was marvelous!

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