Capra e Fagioli

Goat and beans cooked long and separately, then brought together at the end.

Goat. Not vegetarian — contains goat.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg goat shoulder, on the bone, in large pieces
• 400 g dried borlotti beans, soaked overnight
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, chopped
• 300 ml dry white wine
• 2 sprigs rosemary, 3 garlic cloves
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Soak the beans overnight. Cook them in unsalted water with one rosemary sprig for 70 minutes until tender but whole, and keep the cooking water.
2. SALT THE BEANS ONLY ONCE THEY ARE SOFT. Salt early and the skins stay tough however long they go.
3. Brown the goat hard in the oil, in batches. Goat is leaner than lamb and the browning is where most of the flavour of the finished dish comes from.
4. Add the vegetables, garlic and remaining rosemary, then the wine, and let it reduce by half.
5. Add the tomatoes and enough bean water to cover. Cover and cook on the lowest heat for 3 hours.
6. ADD THE BEANS ONLY IN THE LAST 20 MINUTES. Three hours in the pot and they collapse into the sauce — they are here as whole beans alongside the meat, not as a thickener.
7. Rest it 20 minutes off the heat, and better still the next day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes