In a gratin, the cooked beans are baked in a flavored broth, which becomes absorbed by the beans. A gratin may be simple or, as with a cassoulet, thoroughly elaborate.

In this simple gratin, a spicy tomato broth is made with the bean cooking juices. Then beans are baked about an hour, producing a light crust.

This dish does not crust, except very lightly, as it does not have the requisite goose fat or pork roasting fat.

The gratin can be made ahead, but most people prefer it hot and bubbly. You can bake it ahead of time 40 minutes or so, then return it to the oven 25 minutes before serving.

The beans are tasty next day, hot or cold. They will be dry, which can be corrected by a little water stirred in. Reheat gently in a saucepan.

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Make a spicy broth by placing bean liquid, tomatoes with juice, thyme, bay leaf, and olive oil in the sauté pan. Simmer 20 minutes or longer to develop flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut ¼ inch bread cubes from a substantial bread such as French or Italian. Include crusts or not as you prefer. Toast lightly in the toaster oven.

Heat beans in a pan (to shorten the baking time). Place them in the baking dish. Add enough spicy broth just to cover, reserving any excess.

Bake about 1 hour. After 20 minutes, stir up from the bottom. Repeat 20 minutes later. If beans become dry, add reserved juices or water. Finished beans should have absorbed the liquid. They should be slightly crusted on top, somewhat moist underneath, but have no free moisture (well, a little, if you prefer).

10 minutes before the end, distribute toasted bread cubes on the beans.

Cassoulet

We ordinarily think of cassoulet as containing a great variety of meats. Yet a simple cassoulet can be made with few meats. Try pork, sausage, and lamb (or duck or dark turkey meat). Pork provides a sturdy basis, sausage spice, and lamb additional flavor.

Other meats, if available, can add to the festival. Traditional, beside pork and sausage, are goose, game, lamb, mutton. But feel free to use whatever you like or have available.

This is a natural for leftovers. These can suffice, provided they bring their own flavored cooking liquid. If they don’t, at least one meat should be braised or stewed fresh to provide the necessary flavored juices for a cassoulet.

To compete with restaurants

This is an area where you can indeed compete with restaurants. A bona fide cassoulet means baking the beans until they crust, then turning them under to crust again. Meats, meat juices, and beans bake together and form a unity.

This treatment is rare in restaurants, even the best. You are quite likely to be served simple beans in a simple sauce with assorted smoked sausages. This is not a cassoulet.

This cassoulet develops a light crust, but not the heavy crust described in French cookbooks. For the latter, it seems that goose fat or a dense pork fat would be required.

May be served hot or at room temperature. Survives refrigeration quite well.

Serves 4

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut ¼ inch bread cubes from a substantial bread such as French or Italian. Include crusts or not as you prefer. Toast lightly in the toaster oven.

To cook the meats

The purpose here is not only to cook the meats but to provide a flavored liquid in which the beans will bake.

Place half the oil in sauté pan and heat rapidly. Add sausage and pork and brown on all sides, 5 to 10 minutes.

Pour in dry white wine. Sprinkle pork with thyme (if sausage is very spicy, you will not need this).

Cover and braise until sausage and pork are cooked (read 170 degrees F on the instant dial thermometer.) Take out the pork if it gets done first and set aside.

If leftover meat has dried out, soak it in the cooking liquid 10 minutes or preferably longer.

To bake the cassoulet

Drain beans and reserve the cooking liquid.

Place cooked beans in the sauté pan. Stir in cooked meats with their cooking liquid to coat the beans. Add leftover meats.

(May be made in advance to this point.)

When ready to bake, heat the beans and meat in a pan (to shorten the baking time). Place in the casserole. Add enough of the reserved bean liquid just to cover the beans and meat.

Place the baking dish in the oven and bake about an hour.

A light crust will form in about half an hour. Baste with liquid from the bottom and break down through the crust. Repeat again whenever crust forms, leaving a crust at the end. Finished beans will have absorbed nearly all the liquid.

10 minutes before the end, distribute toasted bread cubes on the beans.