When Stanley Tucci came on the Desert Island Dishes podcast a few years ago he told me about this amazing tomato and bean pasta dish that he cooks all the time. It’s kind of like a Pasta Fagioli but not quite. I now make it all the time and it’s so delicious.
You may have heard Stanley talking about his slightly more famous pasta which he spoke in his hit series Searching For Italy. This pasta might be the less famous brother of Stanley's pasta but it is super delicious and perhaps a bit more weeknight friendly.
What you'll need for this Stanley Tucci pasta
Onion (white or red, we use white but the beauty of this recipe is that it’s one that can be flexible to use up what you have in the fridge)
Garlic
Cavolo Nero (use kale or cabbage if you have them instead)
Cannellini beans (use good quality beans if you can as they make SUCH a difference but normal tin of beans are also great, of course)
Marinara sauce (this is just tomato sauce with basil, garlic, salt etc. We like this one or to be honest, good quality passata works too)
Parmesan
Spaghetti
Chicken stock
Frequently Asked Questions
To make the sauce really thick and creamy (without the need for cream), you need to blend some the mixture of beans, tomatoes, onions, stock. So ideally yes, a blender is needed but if you don't have one, you can still just keep it chunky but it won't have quite the same texture. I would maybe reduce the amount of stock to 2 cups to begin with and then see how you go as you don't want it too loose.
It uses chicken stock originally but you could very easily swap this for vegetable stock and you would have a delicious vegetarian tomato and bean pasta. Just make sure you check the label on your Parmesan too.
More pasta recipes you might enjoy
Stanley Tucci Creamy Courgette Pasta
Weeknight Creamy Courgette Pasta
Buttery Creamy Lemon Spaghetti
Spicy Puttanesca Pasta with Burrata
Creamy Sausage Pasta
Stanley Tucci's Weeknight Tomato Pasta
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, halved
- ½ bunch cavolo nero, stems removed and just the leaves roughly chopped
- 3 x 400g tins cannellini beans (720g drained weight total)
- 720ml (3 cups) chicken stock
- 480ml (2 cups) marinara sauce
- 450g spaghetti
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino, for serving
Instructions
- Pour a glug of the oil into a pan and sauté the onion and garlic over medium-low heat until soft. Add the beans, stock, and marinara to the pan with the onion and garlic and stir together. Cook over low heat.
- At the same time, boil the cavolo nero in a small pot of salted water. When soft, strain it, add it to the bean mixture, and stir. Continue to cook on a low simmer with the lid askew for about 15 minutes.
- Remove half the mixture and puree it – set aside. Boil the pasta in salted water according to the directions on the package. When it’s done, strain it, reserving about a cup of the water,
- Place spaghetti in a large bowl - add about 1 cup of the bean mixture to the pasta along with 1 cup of the pureed mixture. Add some of the pasta water if it needs it.
- Salt to taste. Add more bean mixture to each bowl along with a drizzle of oil. Sprinkle with pepper and Parmigiano.
Notes
We used cannellini beans here but you could also use borlotti beans, butter beans or even chickpeas.
Leave a Reply