White Bean

(MINESTRA DI CAMPAGNA) Creativity with simple ingredients is one of the themes of Sicilian cooking. There's no better example than this bean and vegetable soup, which some say evolved from food that fifteenth-century galley cooks made for mariners. Serve an island dry red wine such as Corvo with this.

The creamy soup would be great with large sesame-coated breadsticks and a spinach salad with marinated mushrooms. Baked apples and oatmeal-raisin cookies are nice after. This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

If you have cooked lamb, beef, or turkey on hand, use it instead of the chicken.

Hummus, a dip/spread traditional in many Middle Eastern countries, is usually made with chick-peas (garbanzo beans), but we use white beans for a change of pace. It is delicious with steamed potatoes and artichokes as well as blanched broccoli, cauliflower and green beans.

Ragoût de petits L
égumes au Parmesan et Vinaigre Balsamique Also nice as a meatless entrée—with some crusty French bread, of course.

This recipe originally accompanied Roast Turkey with Bourbon Glaze . Here are two southern favorites in one colorful stuffing. Prepare the corn bread one day ahead so that it can dry out overnight. (This lends a nice texture to the stuffing.)

This low-fat rendition of the classic dish comes from Gil Martínez Soto of Restaurante Virrey de Palafox in El Burgo de Osma, Spain.

This thick and comforting dish is delicious sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Succotash is a corn and bean dish introduced to the early settlers by Indians. The Yankees most likely used local cranberry beans, a kind of shell bean, but lima beans have become the preferred, readily available substitute. We've also added tomatoes for their bright color and fresh flavor, even though they probably did not enter the New England culinary mainstream until the nineteenth century.

This salad makes a lovely side dish at summer barbecues.

Clearly this is an Italian soup. Biete is Swiss chard, usually green, although I have a fondness for the drama and beefy taste of the red-stemmed kind.

"Because my family loves this hearty stew so much, I included it in a cookbook I put together for my children," Joy Smith, Glastonbury, Connecticut. "It makes a comforting meal on cold winter evenings here in Connecticut, and it's a convenient dish that freezes and reheats well."

A version of the Tuscan specialty, fagioli all'ucccelletto.

We've based this carbohydrate-rich, one-dish supper on the classic Spanish paella, mixing the lima beans (which stand in for the traditional rice) with tomatoes, chicken and a bit of ham.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 12 hr (includes soaking beans)