Triestine Cole Slaw

My life has been crazy-o lately, but that's no excuse for not keeping in touch with the blog. I know. Sorry about that. Plus, my last two entries have been complaints. And I should never go to bed with this blog angry (although it's not the blog's fault).

To make up for it, I will tell you the highlight of my day today: Lunch. Now, anyone who knows me can tell you that I love to eat (and drink), so having a meal be the highlight of my day isn't such a rare thing for me. Today's lunch will taste even better because I didn't make it. Sweetie is in charge today. But since it's one of our favorite no-brainer meals, I want to give you the recipe.

It's that Capuzi and Fasoi dish... It's like Triestino cole slaw. And everyone knows that every culture (that I care about) has it's own cole slaw. It's so that we Americans always feel at home, no matter where we are.

Here are the directions.

You need a cabbage, some garlic (we tend to go heavy on the garlic. But that's because we are selfish and don't care what our breath smells like. We also want to live to be 100 and are convinced that this is a good way to achieve that goal), salt, pepper, borlotti beans (if you're in America you can use pinto beans or just about any other kind of bean, navy bean, whatever. We have tried it with white Spanish beans and it has gone well for us. Be creative), olive oil, red wine vinegar (if you have Uncle Boris's homemade vinegar, even better).

Grate that cabbage as thin as you can into a big bowl. Add the raw garlic that you have chopped into itty bitty pieces (Sweetie just put in three cloves. Yikies!), salt and pepper it, set aside.

In a small-ish sauce pan, dump a can or two (again, we love beans and throw in TWO cans) of drained beans  into it, put a decent pour of olive oil in there (to make it juicy), then add a splash of vinegar (I tend to go 1 part vinegar to 4 parts olive oil), you can also add a spoonful of dijon-like mustard (please don't use the day-glow yellow stuff!), heat it up and stir constantly until it bubbles.

Pour the concoction over the raw cabbage and stir it up. Leave it for a couple of hours if you can (you can also eat it right away but it tastes better a while later). Adjust your salt and pepper and VOILA.

It's good fiber! And protein! Mmm. Fills you up, keeps you regular, everything you could ever want in a meal. Today we're going all out though and having this as a side dish (which I guess is how it's meant to be served). We're having hot dogs first, but to be elegant about it, we will skip the buns and call them WURSTEL!

Buon Appetito!