I'll be the umpteenth person to tell you that Italian food is definitely not all pizza and pasta. There are plenty of foraged greens on the table. There is also a hearty number of types of beans.
It all started for me when The Spouse and I were having a warm, aromatic lentil soup in the tiny town of Montepulciano on a rainy October weekend. He turned to me and said: if we incorporated more of this type of thing into our diet, I wouldn't be mad about it.
And since lentils are really plentiful here - green, brown and even black (my favorite) - I dove right in.
This recipe can be easily located online for free. I first found it on New York Times Cooking (which is worth the money). It is perfect for a stove-top-only kitchen like the one I'm working in.
Lenticche Diavola, the Italians would say. Lentils Diavola, so sayeth New York Times.
Lentils of the Devil!
(have I mentioned how cheap this dish is? go price a bag of dried lentils!)
And since everyone in social media has gotten on the mis-en-place bandwagon, here is mine above, and also below.
Dried lentils, chopped garlic and onion, a sliced red chili pepper, a tube of tomato paste and last, the star of this spiced dish. Italian grocery stores are not great vendors of spices, but in the Testaccio neighborhood, I am happy to report that the Emporium of Spices is willing to sell me just enough smoked paprika. Have some white or black pepper on hand? Consider it useful too.
Below are my additions: chopped new potatoes and some pre-cooked polpette (meatballs( made of turkey and chicken).
OF COURSE, lentils are an excellent source of protein, and so if you want to make this vegetarian, by all means do that.
I like the way Italians do meatballs. Even the pre-cooked ones. (and by the way, you'll never find meatballs in the company of pasta here...meatballs are served in a sauce, but never with pasta)
First up, saute the onions (or shallots would totally work) in some olive oil, and squidge about a 1/4 cup of the tomato paste in there.
Throw in the sliced chili (the original recipe called for jalapenos...and they work well too...I'm just hard-pressed to get those here) and garlic and let everything soften and sizzle.
Turn on your overhead stove vent/fan.
Or just cough a lot. Your call.
A very generous amount of smoked paprika (probably two tablespoons?). Also, half of that generous amount of white pepper.
Toss in your dried lentils (generally, any you find in your supermarket will work, except for the red...they become mushy very quickly) and pour in enough water to cover by about 1.5 inches.
Simmer. Casually watch this pot, as you don't want the lentils to dry out. Add more water if it is all absorbed and your lentils are not yet al dente.
While I am casually watching my bean pot, I am sauteeing the potatoes in a very thin layer of a neutral oil like sunflower. When they are sufficiently browned and soft, I throw in the pre-cooked meatballs and heat them through...I try to get them a little more browned than they were straight out of the package.
I had some parsley that got chopped and thrown in, too. Italian flat leaf parsley has a definite taste that, once you happily find it enhancing several dishes, you don't want to do without.
But you CAN do without it, I swear.
The time your lentils will take to be al dente depends on a variety of factors, like the strength of your stove eye (gas or electric?...and whoa, look out for Italian gas stoves because there are not the same kinds of controls placed on the flame output here), the type of water (hard? soft?) in which you are cooking your beans, etc. The recipe forecasts as much as 40 minutes. My lentils have never taken quite that long. But I'm not going by the clock so much as I'm withdrawing a lentil or two into a separate bowl and seeing how it reacts to the back of a spoon. Does it resist smashing a lot? Not done yet.
NOTE: many bean cooking recipes warn against the addition of salt until the beans are cooked, because salt inhibits the proper softening of the legumes.
So it's a good idea to hold out until the stuff is fairly ready, taste and then salt.
The lentils have released so much of their starchiness into the melange of things in there that it's a proper sauce. A spicy sauce.
If you want some condiments to enhance this further, I recommend sour cream or grated cheese. The healthy fat of a sliced avocado is a nice accompaniment. You could go crazy and fry a couple of eggs for a less healthy but still yummy fat that helps cut the heat of the paprika and pepper.
Or you could just put all of this together and enjoy it.
It reheats very easily, and only gets a little spicier as it sits for a day or two.
See? You can eat Italian and never get near a noodle or piece of bread.
