To be honest the only thing that doesn’t look like stuff I’ve eaten out for the last two weeks is putting cumin in at the start. It’s part of Moorish cuisine that has had a massice effect on Spain, and of course Andalusia in particular, but I haven’t noticed it much so far.

Anyway, I’ve learnt enough about “authenticity” in the last 3 decades of taking a real interest in food that I know it’s bogus: There are as many recipes as there are cooks in any culture.

This is close though. You can use canned beans if you can only get those, jarred are better, and dried are even better. These were white beans that took an overnight soak and about two hours of gentle simmering. Apart from the decision to do it the day before, the fact that they were dried made little difference to the effort required.

Method

Soak the beans overnight if you are using dried ones

Finely chop the onion, carrot and celery and add to a saucepan on medium heat with the oil

Finely chop the garlic and the parsley stalks. When the onions are soft but not brown, add the chopped parsley stalks and minced garlic, paprika and black pepper, and cook for about 3 minutes

Turn the heat up and pour in the glass of white wine. Cook until it's mostly gone then add the soaked beans, the chopped tomato and some water to cover plus a bit more. Simmer with the lid on for about 2 hours and check every now and then that 't's not drying out. You'll probably have to add water a couple of times

If using canned or bottled beans, cook for about 30 minutes and put a lot less water in - just enough to make it the consistency you want

In the last few minutes add the salt, spinach and the chopped parsley leaves and cook for a few more minutes

I did this one with a piece of seared tuna. Add whatever you like, including nothing - it's lovely on its own

Ingredients

• An unspecified weight or measure of beans - I don't have my full kitchen here including scales. Dry beans roughly double in size after you soak them if you are doing it be eye, if you're a jar or a can then the measure is a jar or a can
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• A finely chopped carrot
• A finely chopped stick of peeled celery
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
• A bunch of parsley (60g? Who cares, whatever you can get - mine was 125g because Spaniards live on parsley and I used about half.) Finely chop the stalks and the leaves but keep them separate
• A glass of white wine
• A chopped tomato
• A good handful of spinach
• Salt and pepper, obviously