Paisano: Cassoulet

I got a call from the Paisano about a week ago. He was in Sonoma (California) visiting a friend who raises sheep and had been bragging about my lamb sausage: my lamb sausage. I was flabbergasted because as a rule, while the old bastard admits I can cook, he refuses to admit I can do anything better than he can. In this case his friend was trying to empty his reefer (walk in freezer) of what was left of last year’s lamb and asked Paisano for suggestions: bless his heart, Paisano suggested my sausage.

The trip at that point had taken months, largely on foot, and his baby sister died on the way.

This acknowledgment was pretty cool on it’s own, but a few days later I got another call from Paisano and I gained a bit more insight into his past – something far harder to come by than a complement. Specifically he called to tell me about the cassoulet he’d made using my lamb sausage.

The cassoulet with lamb sausage had brought back memories of a cassoulet he’d had when he was in his early teens and fleeing a communist crackdown. As best I could tell, the journey was in the decade following World War II and his mother, older brother, he, and his sisters were trying to get to Bordeaux where they had family. Shortly after reaching France they were briefly taken in by a family in Toulouse. The trip at that point had taken months, largely on foot, and his baby sister died on the way. The rest of them were near starvation by the time they reached the city.

That night they feasted on cassoulet: white beans with pork, duck, and in this case lamb sausage. The meal was too rich for their stomachs and they were all sick after eating it. But they had more the next day and this time kept it down. They stayed a few days longer, recovering their strength and the French family managed to arrange transportation for them all the way to Bordeaux. Paisano’s luck had changed 50 years ago in Toulouse and the cassoulet he’d just made in Sonoma with lamb sausage brought back the memory of that time when life had once again confounded expectations by being good when pain was expected.

I’ve thought about that phone conversation since then to figure out more about him than he admits to. And I suspect the Paisano is Romano – a Gypsy. I suspect this because the family wasn’t simply fleeing enemies in their homeland, but feared enemies all along the way. They might have been Jewish, but Paisano is too off-the-edge for that to ring true to me and his features don’t seem to have come from that ethnic group. And, well, look at the way he lives, always on the road despite his home base at Lake Tahoe.

I may never know the Paisano’s complete story. I’d love to, but I also enjoy, perhaps even more, playing by his rules and trying to figure it out on my own. And whatever his origins, he’s certainly right about how good cassoulet is with lamb sausage, even when you’re not starving.

Cassoulet
Serves 8.

1 pound dried cannellini beans (great northern beans or navy beans may be used)
1 celery stalk, broken in half
1 carrot, broken in half
2 large yellow onions, 1 peeled and cut in half, the other peeled and diced
4 ounces pancetta
10-12 sprigs of thyme, tied in a bundle
2 bay leaves
2 quarts duck stock (or chicken stock)
2 tablespoons salt
2 country-style pork ribs (about 12 ounces)
5 tablespoons duck fat (or olive oil)
2 links (1/2 pound) lamb garlic sausage or any other fresh link sausage
4 tablespoons minced garlic, separated
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 duck legs confit (about 12 ounces with bone in), you can use fresh duck or chicken if confit is unavailable
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup bread crumbs

Pick over beans and add to a large pot along with carrot, celery, the onion cut in half, pancetta, thyme and bay leaves. Add stock and bring just to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours. Top up liquid with water as needed to keep all ingredients covered.

Cool beans then pick out vegetables and herbs and discard. Cut up pancetta and return to pot.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Season pork ribs with salt and pepper and brown on all sides in a tablespoon of duck fat in a cast iron skillet. Cover skillet with aluminum foil, place in oven and cook until the beans are done — about 3 hours. Allow to cool.

Place sausages and two tablespoons of duck fat in a skillet with 1/2 inch of water. Simmer for 4 minutes, turn sausage over, and simmer until all water is gone. Brown sausages and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of duck fat (if needed) to sausage skillet and add diced onions. Sautee over medium heat for 4 minutes, stirring as needed to prevent burning. Stir in 3 tablespoons minced garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Mix onions into beans along with diced tomatoes and their juice.

Add last tablespoon of duck fat to skillet and toss in breadcrumbs and remaining tablespoon of minced garlic. Cook until lightly browned. Reserve.

If you’re using fresh duck or chicken, season it generously with salt and pepper and brown it in the skillet with a tablespoon of oil or fat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all the ingredients except breadcrumbs in a deep casserole or Dutch oven, but make sure beans cover all the meat to keep it from drying out. You may need to add a bit of liquid, just enough to bring the level slightly below the top. Water works, but so does either red or white wine and wine adds more flavor. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs to form a crust.

Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour. Remove from oven, cool and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Remove meat from bones and slice sausage into rounds then stir back in along with the crust. Cook for 1 hour and serve.

I like a red wine with this dish, but white is fine. A green salad with vinaigrette is the perfect side dish.

Note: Paisano is a fictitious character developed for Gather.com.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | cassoulet | beans | french

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