My favorite photograph in Rancho Gordo’s The Bean Book is of Smitten Kitchen’s Pizza Beans. Pizza Beans are a thing, an all-star recipe that rocked the bean world when Deb posted it to her Smitten Kitchen site in 2017. Ed Anderson’s photo in the book captures everything people love about it – the oozy cheese, the tomatoes, the vibe of rustic decadence. The concept is this: combine the things you love about pizza – cheese, tomatoes, single-pan, etc. – but use beans in place of crust. It’s brilliant. I’ve been doing a fall/winter version of it lately that I thought I’d share here. This version still has all the components that made it famous – tomato, cheeses, giant beans. But I’ve been doing a pumpkin, kale, feta, and black olive version you might get onboard with.

Pizza Beans: This Recipe

This time of year I like to bolster the tomato base of these beans with crushed, roasted pumpkin. Good, 100% pumpkin from the can works great too. I don’t typically end up using the entire can, but our dog Polly loves to eat any leftover pumpkin, so it’s a win for everyone. Other variables:

• Feta Cheese: Crumbled feta, preferably in larger chunks, is key. The tomato, big bean, feta trifecta is classic for good reason. It lends a punctuation to the starchiness of the beans and acidity of the tomatoes that just hits perfectly.
• Beans: The corona beans called for here actually freeze really well, Greek gigante beans freeze nicely as well. So, if you want a recipe like this to come together as low-lift as possible, cook the beans ahead of time. Allow them to cool, and then freeze. I usually do two pounds of dried beans in a big pot in one go. The night before you want to cook the pizza beans, allow the beans to thaw in the refrigerator.
• Process: here’s the general step-by-step
  
  You’re going to cook everything in one pan (above). Any large, oven-safe pan will work.
  
  After the beans, vegetables, and tomatoes are cooked, remove from heat and top with a trio of cheeses. Don’t skimp on the feta, it’s my favorite in this recipe.
  
  Bake until the cheeses are golden and melted. Serve hot! Here’s a quick video of how it all comes together (below).

VIDEO: How To Make Three Cheese Pizza Beans

The Bean Book

If you’re new to cooking beans, or if you need fresh inspiration, this is your book. It talks through cooking dozens of beautiful heirloom bean varietals, and the recipes are wide-ranging. I’ve written the forward to exactly one cookbook (other than my own), and it was for this one. Steve and I met in the early 2000s in San Francisco when I would haunt the early morning Ferry Building Farmers’ Market. He showed up with his show-stopper heirloom beans and I’ve had a dedicated zone in my pantry for Rancho Gordo beans ever since.

Variations

• My favorite giant bean dish of all time is the one served at NOPA in San Francisco. Food & Wine included it in a feature with Steve forever ago – 2008 (here). Aside from the larger-than-life beans, the magic is the crunchy, toasted breadcrumbs combined with the oregano drizzle. I’ve drizzled today’s pizza beans with the oregano drizzle from NOPA and it’s heaven.
• I eventually found myself doing a riff on the (above) NOPA beans where the beans are baked in a bright, chunky chipotle tomato sauce, topped with crunchy breadcrumbs, plenty of oozy queso fresco, and an emerald drizzle of cilantro pesto – Giant Chipotle Baked Beans. Play around a bit!

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