Check out the latest addition to our online cookbook: Fagioli all’uccelletto – Beans as Birds. An archetypical Tuscan dish, Fagioli all’uccelletto are easy to prepare and absolutely tasty – great comfort food!
We prepare it with cannellini beans, a white variety of beans, a bit elongated and not too big. This dish can be served as a vegetarian secondo, accompanied with slices of toasted rustic bread, or as a side dish for boiled meats or sausages.
We can only guess at the origin of the peculiar name of this dish… As the father of the Italian cuisine, Pellegrino Artusi, hypothesized, the name might derive from the fact that in the old days birds were cooked with the same kind of seasoning – sage, garlic and tomatoes.
Find out more about Pellegrino Artusi on Wikipedia.
In the second part of the XIX century, Pellegrino Artusi was the first to assemble in one book – La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well) – recipes from different regions of Italy. Some might sound a bit strange today, as certain ingredients are no longer in common use, but the stories he tells about some of the recipes and his humorous tone are a real scream! Find his book on Amazon…