One-Pot Cannellini Bean Pasta – Easy and Quick Pasta Recipe

What’s better than cannellini bean pasta? One-pot cannellini bean pasta! This is possibly the easiest recipe you can think of and also pretty cheap. All the ingredients of our one-pot white bean pasta recipe are super easy to source. Actually, it’s very likely you already have all the ingredients in your kitchen pantry and fridge. And on top of that, the tools to wash afterward are reduced to a minimum!

If you want to see more recipes made using a few kitchen tools? Try this delicious swordfish and cherry tomatoes pasta recipe cooked in a single pan.

This delicious white bean pasta recipe is very nourishing and makes for a complete meal because it includes carbs, protein, and veggies. If you like it, you can have a small fresh salad on the side. I love it with some fresh arugula.

I use these white beans also combined with some veggies, like in this creamy zucchini and cannellini bean pasta recipe that it’s a perfect comfort food.

How to Make the Easiest One-Pot Cannellini Bean Pasta – Ingredients Tips

• The pasta. First of all, the pasta that, together with the cannellini beans, is the star of this easy vegan dish. I suggest a short pasta, so no spaghetti that I use in other recipes such as spaghetti with agretti and cherry tomatoes. Using a short type of pasta the beans can blend in better and squeeze in those rigatoni or penne. Apart from the type, you can also decide what grain your pasta is made with. I chose mine made with normal wheat, but if you are gluten intolerant, you can go for corn or rice pasta. Also, I chose mine wholegrain so that the proteins of the beans are better absorbed.

• The beans. For this recipe, I used cannellini beans because I like their delicate taste and their creaminess. And also because I had them cooked in the fridge and ready to use. If you don’t have cannellini, you can use another type of beans including pinto beans, or another type of white beans such as navy beans or Spanish beans. Probably I wouldn’t use black beans, adzuki beans, mung beans, edamame, or fava beans, not because they are not a great source of nutrients, but because they don’t give the creaminess this dish would require. If you really have only one of these, I would choose black or adzuki beans and blend half of it before adding it to the skillet with the pasta so that you also have your cream. In this case, chickpea will work, too, but the flavor will change quite a bit and you will also need to blend a part of it.

• The tomatoes. Last time, I used canned peel tomatoes because it was winter but if I make this one-pot pasta dish in the summertime, I use the fresh ones, preferably cherry or small plum tomatoes. Using fresh tomatoes, the process slightly changes because you will need to cook them first cut them in half with the garlic and a pinch of salt until tender, and if you like remove the peel. Only after that, add the cooked beans and then the pasta to be cooked slowly.

• The onion. I used the shallot because that was what I had easily available but a little bit of yellow or red onion will do.

• The oil. I use olive oil because this is an Italian recipe and olive oil is what best gives the “Italian flavor”. If you can’t find it, however, you can totally opt for another type of oil. I probably won’t use sesame oil but maybe avocado or sunflower oil can do.

Make sure you read our easy mushroom spinach pasta recipe and our take on the traditional Italian turnip greens pasta.

One-Pot White Bean Pasta – Directions

• When browning the garlic and the shallot, be careful not to burn them or they will give a not-so-pleasant burned taste. However, make sure you don’t leave them raw otherwise when you add the water to cook the pasta they will give a boiled garlic and onion flavor that is not meant to be in this recipe.

• When cooking pasta, I barely follow the box instructions. I look at them for rough guidance but I always try the pasta before draining it. For this one-pot pasta with cannellini beans recipe, I do pretty much the same: even though the pasta doesn’t need to be drained, I keep adding water until al dente so that I can turn off the heat.

Nutritional Properties and Benefits

Apart from being delicious, tomatoes are rich in lycopene, the red-color beta-carotene that is believed to play an important role in cancer prevention including prostate, breast, and the digestive tract. Our body will better absorb the lycopene if tomatoes are cooked and in sauces or/and consumed with a little oil. Our one-pot cannellini bean pasta recipe is perfect in this, whether you use the tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes because you will still need to cook them in oil.

Cannellini beans are high in nutrients and very healthy. They are rich in fiber and proteins, but to get the most out of their protein quality, you need to match them with whole grain. Any whole grain will do, be it whole rice, wheat, buckwheat, barley, and so on and so forth. Thanks to their soluble fiber, they help lower the “bad” cholesterol and their low glycemic index makes them a perfect food for patients with diabetes. Among the other precious nutrients we can find in cannellini beans are potassium, calcium, iron, and antioxidants.

When it comes to pasta or any type of grain, I ALWAYS opt for whole grains. Consuming too much refined grains is not a great idea, whole grains provide fantastic benefits including a lower risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, and can totally be eaten every day. While not all grains have the same properties, when you eat whole grains, you are definitely packing up a good amount of fiber, protein, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.

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