Rachel Roddy’s recipe for beans with greens and sausages | A kitchen in Rome
The benefit of soaking and cooking (or, better still, pressure cooking) your own beans are many: less packaging; money saved (a 500g bag of dried beans costing £2.50 will yield 1.5kg cooked beans, while some 400g tins can cost more or less the same); the suspiciously coloured but flavourful and starchy bean cooking water; and some personal satisfaction that you actually remembered to soak the beans in the first place.The benefits – and joy – of tinned beans, however, are almost instantaneous.That is, just a ring-pull away – unless, of course, said ring-pull comes off prematurely, turning the tin into a door without a knob and leaving you two options: searching for the tin opener that is somewhere in the miscellaneous drawer (or among the picnic equipment, which is on top of the wardrobe), or puncturing the tin at exactly the right spot on the seam with a pointy parmesan knife, which is somewhere in the same drawer.
Fortunately, the ring pull didn’t come away prematurely on any of the three tins – two borlotti beans and one plum tomatoes – required for this week’s recipe, which came about thanks to a meal at Dal Cordaro, a hard-working and decent trattoria just behind Porta Portese, a 17th-century city gate (arch) in the Aurelian wall on the right bank of the river Tiber.Everything we ordered – whole braised artichokes, slow-cooked oxtail stew, flash-fried rags of beef (straccetti), pasta and chickpeas – was pleasing and could have made its way into this column.However, my plate of beans in a rich, orange-tinted tomato sauce with poached sausages and greens (escarole) stirred in at some point was the satisfying idea that came home with me.On the subject of things in tins, this dish had about it something – and I mean this as a compliment – of both baked beans (homemade and Heinz) and breakfast-in-a-tin.Notably, the plump, slightly jellied consistency of the sausage that comes from poaching in sauce, which is, of course, accompanied by the flavour and substance of the sausages you choose to use.
I tried 100% pork sausages with fennel seeds, sausages with some rusk, and seitan bratwurst, all of which worked well.This an accommodating dish, and can also be adapted to use soaked and cooked beans, plus a little of the cooking broth.While the combination of beans, greens and sausages is a complete and satisfying one, this stew/braise welcomes thick slices of toast rubbed lightly with garlic and brushed with melted butter or olive oil, for mopping up the sauce and cleaning the plate.At Dal Cordaro, as well as serving a good cherry and ricotta tart, they also offer seasonal fruit, which might be pineapple fanned out with a decorative twist.A wonderful pudding – as is tinned pineapple.
Serves 44 tbsp olive oil 4-8 pork or vegetarian sausages1 large onion, peeled and diced1 sprig sage400g tin peeled plum tomatoes, crushed or passed through a food mill1 tsp tomato concentrate1 tsp red chilli flakesSalt and black pepper2 400g tins borlotti or cannellini beans, drained well250g greens – spinach or endive, sayIn a heavy-based pan or casserole dish on a medium-low heat, warm two tablespoons of the oil, then add the sausages and turn regularly until lightly brown on all sides,Remove the sausages from the pan – this is just a preliminary browning, and they will be cooked more later,Back in the pan, add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil to the hot pork fat, then stir in the onion,Once the onion is soft, add the sage, then, after a minute or two, the tinned tomatoes, tomato concentrate, chilli flakes and a pinch of salt,Simmer for 10 minutes, pressing the tomatoes with the back of a spoon to break up any lumps.
Add a glass of warm water, return the sausages to the pan, and simmer, turning regularly, for 20-25 minutes (if you are using veggie sausages, adjust the timing as required), adding more water if the sauce thickens too much.Once the sausages are cooked through, stir in the drained beans, simmer for a further five minutes, then add the greens and stir until they wilt completely into the sauce.Taste, adjust for salt and pepper as needed, and serve.
Subsidies for Rolls-Royce might seem a bit rich, but they are inevitable | Nils Pratley
Rolls-Royce, the engine-maker and defence firm that is spitting out so much cash it can shove £7bn to £9bn towards buying back shares over the next three years, would like UK taxpayers to find a few quid – reportedly up to £200m as a first slug – to help fund one its big bets. The company would “appreciate” financial support from the government to smooth work on a new engine, says its chief executive, Tufan Erginbilgiç.Outrageous? Well, corporate welfare for Rolls is obviously absurd in the abstract. If there is a definition of a company that can afford to pay for its own research and development, this is it. One might also say Rolls owes us a favour since it was the recipient of billions of pounds worth of loan guarantees from the UK’s export finance agency when the Covid wolf was at the corporate door in 2020
Drax to stop burning controversial Canadian wood within next year
The owner of Drax power plant has started reducing the amount of Canadian wood pellets it burns, and will stop burning trees from British Columbia entirely within the next year.The FTSE 250 company Drax Group said its Canadian wood pellet plants, which once supplied millions of tonnes of biomass to be burnt in its North Yorkshire power plant, had cost the company almost £200m in financial impairments last year.The company said the pellet production plants, which have come under criticism from environmentalists, faced a “challenging outlook” after a decision in the second half of last year that, from 2027, the Drax power plant would burn pellets sourced only from the US.Despite the writedown, Drax shares soared to 20-year highs to give the company a market value of about £3bn after it reported better than expected full-year earnings of £947m for 2025 and raised shareholder dividends by 11.5%
Met police to pilot facial recognition identity checks, mayor confirms
Metropolitan police officers are to start scanning citizens’ faces using automated facial recognition technology to check their identities, in a move backed by the mayor of London but described as “alarming” by opponents.The pilot was revealed on Thursday when Sadiq Khan said 100 officers would use the roaming technology – commonly deployed on smartphones – for six months. The mayor was responding to questioning from an opposition politician amid rising concern about the rollout of AI-powered policing tools. The Met’s website still states it “does not presently use the so-called operator initiated facial recognition”.Face scanning has already been deployed by police with cameras on vans and in fixed locations including in Croydon, Manchester and South Wales
Instagram to alert parents if teens repeatedly search self-harm terms
Instagram will start alerting parents if their kids repeatedly search for terms clearly associated with suicide or self-harm.The announcement on Thursday comes as Instagram’s parent company, Meta, is in the midst of two trials over harms to children.A trial under way in Los Angeles questions whether Meta’s platforms deliberately addict and harm minors. Another in New Mexico seeks to determine whether Meta failed to protect kids from sexual exploitation on its platforms.The alerts will only go to parents who are enrolled in Instagram’s parental supervision program
Brady Tkachuk decries White House’s AI video of him insulting Canadians after US gold
US ice hockey star Brady Tkachuk has said he does not appreciate an AI video released by the White House that shows him insulting Canadians.Tkachuk played in the Americans’ victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, which secured the US men their first gold medal since 1980. In the wake of that win, the White House’s TikTok account published video of Tkachuk saying: “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating fuckers a lesson.”Tkachuk never said those words and the video, which has had more than 10m views, is labelled as AI-generated.“Well, it’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said on Thursday
Golfer Andrea Pavan ‘thankful to be alive’ after reportedly falling down lift shaft
Italian golfer Andrea Pavan is “thankful to be alive” after reportedly falling three floors down a lift shaft.The 36-year-old, a two-time European Tour winner, was scheduled to be playing in this week’s South African Open Championship at Stellenbosch Golf Club but was forced to withdraw after the incident on Wednesday.According to reports the accident, which happened in his private accommodation, occurred when the lift doors opened but there was no lift car in the shaft and Pavan fell, sustaining multiple injuries.Italian media reports say he underwent a six-hour operation to reduce several vertebral fractures and implant a plate in his shoulder and is in a serious but not life-threatening condition.Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'
Netflix shares jump after walking away from Warner Bros Discovery deal, clearing way for Paramount – business live
Ocado failing to deliver on its potential as one of UK’s great technology hopes
Woman at heart of US trial says she was addicted to social media at age six
Riaz Hasan obituary
Australia v India: second women’s one-day cricket international – live
Birmingham City’s owners explore moving into rugby union and buying Prem franchise