We’re invited to a surprise benchmark birthday party this weekend for a long time friend of our’s. I wanted to make an easily transported, no fuss dip. JT absolutely loves Bar Mercurio‘s white bean paste that they serve instead of butter with their focaccia, so I knew I had to make it! I wanted to make it a few days ahead to allow the flavours to really blend.
The picture doesn’t do it justice. This dip is SOOOOOO creamy, you would think there is gobs and gobs of butter in it, but there ISN’T! So incredibly good, and creamy.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dried navy beans (if you use canned, make sure you rinse really well)
- 5 cups LS chicken stock or a mix with water
- 2 tbsp panchetta
- 2 tbsp shallots
- 2-4 tbsp lemon juice
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 head garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp LS chicken stock
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Remove most, but not all excess outer skin from garlic bulb. Put into a tightly fit ramekin. Drizzle with the olive oil and 3 tbsp chicken stock. Seal tightly with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes or until garlic is soft.
- In a large Dutch oven, fry the panchetta until crispy. Remove from pan but reserve the fat in the pan.
- Cook the shallots in the reserved bacon fat until translucent.
- Rinse the beans (it is recommended not to soak over night as that apparently increases the propensity to cause gas, and no one wants that!). Add them with the stock into the pan with the shallots. Cook the beans until very soft and mushy (1 1/2 to 2 hours. Or you can reduce this time significantly by cooking in a pressure cooker). Allow to cool to room temperature.
- When the garlic has cooled to room temperature, squeeze each clove out of its skin into a large food processor bowl. Add the beans, the liquid from poaching the garlic and panchetta. Add lemon juice and sea salt to taste. Process until smooth and creamy. . Serve with pita chips or bread sticks.
As a note, I thought I would want to press this mix through a fine seive, but JT reminded me that those bacon bits would be lost, so I processed a bit longer so the bacon bits are a lot smaller. It has a very smooth and creamy texture.
Yum! I love white bean dips! This looks amazingly creamy and delicious! Well done!
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Thanks Manu! I’ll be making this again.
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This looks so beautifully creamy and great idea making this ahead of time to meld the flavours together! 🙂
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Thank you Lorraine! It was gobbled up really quickly last night!
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This is gorgeous and I bet really silky. I have so much sage I’d probably throw some in, but this is just perfect.
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Wow! I have sage the size of plates! really huge sage. I was wondering what to do with them!
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This sounds delicious! I love the idea of roasted garlic, shallots and pancetta in it…I bet it made the beans taste OH SO delicious! I also like the idea of bread sticks with the dip instead of the usual suspects…. Nicely done!
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Thanks Ann. The roasted garlic really went nicely with the beans. A nice change from the usual Hummus.
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I love bean dip and have to restrain myself at social events otherwise I’d empty the bowl. I love the flavor the pancetta would bring to the dip, as opposed to bacon. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks John. I had made a little too much for the bowl I planned on taking (oops) so we sampled some last night…really tasty. The flavours had time to come together and wow. It’s even creamier than the first day!
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