Beans and Pulses

Just as children like baked beans, so they seem to like all pulses. Tinned chick peas, cannellini, borlotti, pinto, any bean you want, are worth keeping around for them, and if you do mind about salt then buy canned organic ones. Just stir some cooked chopped bacon into any of the pulses, or some prawns or fish into the cannellini. Prawns and beans happens to be an actual contemporary Italian reworking – i ricchi e i poveri as it’s known – of the traditional tonno e fagioli; indeed tuna, drained, and mixed in with a can of beans, bound with a few drops of good olive oil is another meal worth bearing in mind, since canned tuna (which I detest) seems ideally suited to childish palates. Trout fillets, just poached, then roughly chopped and added to borlotti – or Pink Fish and Beans – are a particular favourite in my household, since my daughter is going through a deeply pink stage, which shows no signs of abating. You could use smoked fillets if you want to avoid any cooking whatsoever, or substitute smoked mackerel; this is something of a radical substitution – the taste is much stronger, the texture much oilier – but can be successful.