Most people will tell you, with sound logic, that there’s no point making your own baked beans: Heinz trumps all comers. I have some sympathy with this view. Yet shop-bought baked beans are rammed with sugar and salt, and also don’t seem quite right as a side to anything other than a low-effort banger, pie, jacket potato or a full English breakfast. For occasions when you’ve spent a bit of time cooking BBQ ribs, pulled pork, chicken pot pie or maybe just some good-quality sausages, then a smoky home-cooked version does the job very nicely indeed.
You could use pre-cooked cannellini and haricot beans, though they’ll break up in the bake somewhat more than is ideal; just multiply the dried bean weight by three and begin at the second step below. The beans can be reheated or cooked in stages to suit your timings.
Ingredients
- 100 g dried cannellini beans
- 150 g dried haricot beans
- 3 rashers smoked streaky bacon, cut into thin strips
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, sliced into thin crescents
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 400 g tinned plum tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs rosemary leaves, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons Marmite
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tomato purée
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Put the dried beans in a bowl, cover them with at least 3 times their volume of cold water and leave to soak for 10 hours.
- Drain, then tip them into a large pan and cover with 4 times their volume of cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 1½–2 hours, until tender.
- To make the smoky tomato sauce, put the bacon in a cold saucepan with a dash of oil. Set over a medium heat and cook for 5 minutes, or until crisp and much of its fat has melted. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened and sweetened. Add the garlic and cook gently for 1 minute. Tip in the tin of tomatoes, then fill the empty tin with water and add that too, along with the bay leaves and chopped rosemary. Add the paprika, Marmite, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, sugar and tomato purée. Bring to the boil, then simmer the sauce for 30 minutes to reduce and intensify the flavours.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Remove the bay leaves and transfer the sauce into a blender. Blitz until smooth (or use a stick blender to do the same). Add 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper. Stir in the remaining oil, then tip in the cooked and drained beans and stir well. It should be quite a loose mixture (think of the shop-bought variety) add another cup or two of water if you think it’s needed. Ladle the beans and sauce into an ovenproof dish and bake for 30 minutes. Stir after 15 minutes, then leave undisturbed until it has a dark, slick and near-crusted top.