Basque Beans and Sardines to Make at Home
An exceptionally easy dish to prepare and enjoy
If you read what I write regularly, you won’t be surprised to hear me say that the flavor of this dish depends wholly on the quality of the ingredients. They, too, have to be true to themselves. If you like tinned fish, this recipe is a super-simple, really delicious, and very versatile option for your menu at home. The prepared dish can be an appetizer or a main course for either lunch or dinner. I like it at room temperature, but it’s also great heated up.
To make the dish, I start with the following:
- A jar of El Navarrico beans from the Basque Country. They’re cooked, ready to consume, and so tasty that I have eaten them straight out of the jar with little more than salt and pepper and some olive oil. We have two varieties at the Deli. Alubias are smaller white beans, and Judion are big butter beans. Both are tender and terrific!
- A jar of El Navarrico roasted Piquillo red peppers, also from the Basque Country. These small, triangular peppers have been unique to the region for a few hundred years. Other places have started to grow them, too, but they’re not as good! The Basque peppers are so special that they have a Denomination of Origin label on them! They’re smoked over beechwood and peeled by hand—skilled staff wipe the roasted black skin off with small white cloths.
- A tin of top-notch sardines. Ortiz from the Basque Country in Spain would be my top pick, but we have a whole array of amazing offerings on hand at the Deli. All would work well in this dish.
- Full-flavored extra virgin olive oil.
To put the dish together, make sure all of the ingredients are at room temperature. Spoon the beans onto a large plate or a series of small ones. Chop the peppers coarsely and sprinkle them over the beans. Lay the sardines over the top. Pour a fair bit of extra virgin olive oil on top, too.
From there, the options are almost endless. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper are my go-tos. If you like garlic, add slivers of the fresh stuff to the mix. A handful of chopped fresh herbs would be a nice touch, as would caramelized onion or fennel—or both, if you’d like. A sprinkle of Pimenton de la Vera, the oak-smoked Spanish paprika, is tasty, too! Serve with a lemon wedge on the side.
The smooth texture of the beans, the luscious meatiness of the sardines, the hint of smoke and slight spice of the peppers, and the fruitiness of the olive oil are a super combination. Serve with some good Bakehouse bread (preferably warmed so it soaks up the juices on the plate). If you’re a big bread eater like I am, consider toasting a thick slice of Paesano or Rustic Italian and then putting the beans and the rest on top of it—a beautiful Basque version of British beans on toast!
Shop for supplies
