Tuscan White Bean Skillet
Cannellini beans simmered with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and chicken broth until the broth reduces into a light, flavorful sauce. Fresh spinach wilted in at the end, finished with parmesan. Fifteen minutes, one pan, entirely from pantry ingredients. The most useful vegetarian weeknight dinner on this site.
Ingredients
Produce
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 3 cup fresh spinach or baby spinach
- 2 tbsp fresh basil roughly torn, for finishing
Dairy
- 0.5 cup parmesan cheese freshly grated, plus more for serving
Pantry & Canned Goods
- 2 cans cannellini beans drained and rinsed
- 0.5 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and roughly chopped
- 1 cup chicken broth low sodium — or vegetable broth to keep vegetarian
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Seasonings & Spices
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 0.5 tsp smoked paprika
- 0.5 tsp kosher salt
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 0.5 tsp crushed red pepper flakes adjust to taste
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the minced garlic and cook for 60 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant and just golden at the edges. Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and cook for another 60 seconds — they will sizzle in the oil and release their concentrated tomato flavor directly into the pan.
- Add the drained cannellini beans, chicken broth, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the broth reduces by about a third and the sauce thickens into something that coats the beans rather than pooling at the bottom of the pan.
- Add the fresh spinach and stir — it will wilt down to almost nothing in about 60 to 90 seconds. Once wilted, remove from heat. Stir in the grated parmesan a handful at a time until melted and incorporated. Taste and adjust salt. Scatter fresh basil over the top.
- Serve directly from the pan with crusty bread for scooping, over pasta, or alongside a simple salad. Extra parmesan at the table.
Notes
This recipe is built entirely from pantry and refrigerator staples — canned beans, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, broth, parmesan. Nothing requires a grocery store trip if you keep a reasonably stocked pantry. That's the whole point of a recipe like this: Tuesday at 7pm, nothing planned, dinner in fifteen minutes from what's already there.
Sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil are the right call — they're already soft, intensely flavored, and the oil they sit in is excellent. Add a tablespoon of that oil along with the olive oil at the start for an extra layer of tomato flavor. Dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes work but need more time to soften.
The broth reduction is the sauce. Don't rush it. Six minutes of gentle simmering takes the broth from thin liquid to something glossy and flavorful that clings to the beans. Pull it off too early and it's soup. Give it the full six minutes.
Optional protein: Italian sausage, removed from casings and browned before the garlic, turns this into a full meat dinner. Add it at the very start, cook until browned, then proceed with the recipe as written. The rendered sausage fat replaces the olive oil entirely. Rotisserie chicken shredded in at the end also works well.
Vegetarian: use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. The dish is fully vegetarian without that swap but chicken broth adds depth that vegetable broth doesn't quite replicate — both versions are good.
Leftovers keep refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat in a pan over low heat with a splash of broth. The beans continue to absorb the sauce overnight — the splash of broth brings it back to the right consistency.
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