Recipe - Fasule (Bean Stew)

Anyone heard of Pasta e Fagioli, the bean stew at Olive Garden?  Well, this is not that. It is Fasule.  Note the similar word of this stew and you can see that Albania is pretty close to Italy.  No pasta in this one, though, as it's Albanian!  No garlic in this either, which is another big difference between this and anything from Italy.  :)

Fasule

This is mine!

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried white beans
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup butter
• 2 T chopped mint (optional)
• 2 T Chopped parsley (optional)
• 4 T tomato paste
• 4 cups Vegetable Stock (or broth)
• Some olive oil 

Directions

1. If using dried beans,soak them overnight.  Reserve 6 T of the soaking water.
2. Saute onion in olive oil for 15 minutes.  Add the bell pepper and carrot and saute another 5 minutes.
3. Add tomato paste, 3 T bean water and parsley and stir for about 10 minutes.
4. Stir the butter until it melts then add the vegetable stock slowly.
5. Add in the beans and vegetable stock and enough water to cover the beans (if needed)
6. Add chopped mint, cover and cook for about 4 hours over low heat.  Check every so often to make sure that the beans are still covered in liquid.  Add water if needed.
7. Serve hot with bread.

References

• https://albaniancuisine.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/beans-gresh-or-fasule/
• http://www.albaniantranslators.com/recipes.html
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Bean_Jahni_soup