Braised Beans with Burrata

An almost entirely hands-off vegetarian dinner I can't stop making

Hello! Welcome back and thank you all for meeting me here in Dinner: A Love Story’s new home on Substack. Look, I made you something!

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to tell you about these beans. Maybe it’s because it’s one of those recipes that’s not really a recipe, which is, of course, the best kind of recipe. Every time I make them, I text someone a photo saying, you have to make these beans. Then I follow up with the “recipe,” so easy it fits in one text:

soak lima dried beans all day in a pot. an hour before dinner, simmer in same pot and same liquid; add an onion, any fresh herb, bay leaf, lots of salt, and some hefty glugs of olive oil. taste after 40 minutes. serve beans in its own stock. top with burrata or pesto or both

I’ll tell you what I like the most about this dinner. It’s not just that the beans wind up so creamy and flavorful or that there’s beautiful burrata involved so how could it be anything but delicious, or that you can customize a bowl to please whoever i…