You simply can't stop eating these borlotti beans in tomato sauce with eggs. They're saucy, spicy and so meaty!

Borlotti beans in tomato sauce with eggs are one of those simple, easy dishes that you can't stop eating until you finish the whole pot.

A couple of weeks back, I started talking to you guys about those meals you make on auto-pilot at the end of a busy workday. What I didn't mention is that in our house, those auto-pilot meals often become frequent flyers. Like unwanted guests, they stay well past their welcome, using up all of your eggs and leaving dirty stains and bowls all over your mosaic-inlaid table. You want to get rid of them, to ask them to leave politely; but each time you try, you find yourself strangely realizing that you kind of like having them around. After all, they save you the hassle of making plans for Friday night.

Just like these guests, the repeat dishes in our house make cameos at a frequency that, really, would be embarrassing for any aspiring chef. Once I make a dish we like, I often myself unable to think of anything other than the need to taste it again. I go through periods of binging on delicata squash salads, or almond cakes, or banana bread. In Hanukkah, I usually come up with one variation on latkes, and then proceed to eat it every. single. day for a week. Like I said - it's embarrassing.

And in the true tradition of regurgitating a dish to death, we made these borlotti beans in tomato sauce four different times. In the span of two weeks. And the only reason we stopped was because I went away for a month.

But what was so good about these borlotti beans in tomato sauce, you ask? In truth, nothing special. I adapted them slightly from a recipe by the above-mentioned Rachel Roddy of the blog Rachel Eats (and now, the book My Kitchen In Rome), whose writing I read with the religious zeal usually displayed by Buddhist monks.

My Kitchen in Rome: the Writing of Rachel Roddy

Rachel's kitchen looks the way I always wanted mine to be: a dark, stained wooden counter, covered with heavy white ceramics with blue borders, besides a well used, well-loved gas stove. Her sink is always full of exactly the kind of vegetables I want to eat: lush and wild, Italian produce by the bushel spilling over the edges.

And her words are exactly the words I hope to evoke in my writing: honest and targeted, they reach into your stomach and grab you by the guts, leaving you reeling.

What are Borlotti Beans?

For this recipe I used fresh borlotti beans (also known as cranberry beans for their lovely colouring), though you could just as easily use dry borlotti beans, or even canned white beans in a pinch.

I used canned homemade tomato sauce I already had on hand, but you could easily whip up a tomato sauce on the spot, or use a jar of your favourite store-bought stuff.

I added scrambled eggs because I have a thing about egg texture, but you could add a poached egg, or a scrambled egg, or a fried egg. Just make this dish.

There was nothing special about these borlotti beans in tomato sauce with eggs that would justify making them four times in a week.

But somehow, when we sat on the couch on a stormy night, lapping these up with spoons and sopping up the leftovers with crusty bread, our lips smacking and tongues licking tomato sauce leftovers, none of that mattered. We helped ourselves to another bowl. And another one.

And the next day, we made them again.

And again, the following week.

And we would still be eating these borlotti beans with tomato sauce and eggs if we hadn't become obsessed with delicata squash.

If you try these borlotti beans in tomato sauce, let me know how you liked them. Just don't blame me if they become repeat meals in your home, too.

Recipe

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