Recipe for Country-style Cassoulet

Soaking and Cooking Dried Beans Before cooking your beans, you need to soak them overnight: so the day before, place your beans in a bowl, cover them with cold water, and let them rehydrate until the next day. The next day, drain the soaking water from the beans. Pour the beans into a large pot, add the onion pierced with cloves, the bouquet garni, the celery stalk, and the peeled carrots cut into pieces. Add plenty of water, then bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, add the garlic sausage, the tomato paste, season with salt and pepper, and let simmer for another 15 minutes. At this point, taste the beans to check their doneness; they should be tender but not mushy.

Cooking Sausage While your beans are cooking, grill the sausage. This is not mandatory, but it's how we like it at my place: it will give a little smoky flavor that we enjoy, and the cooking will be perfect once rehydrated in the casserole.

Assembly Next, proceed with the assembly: Rub the inside of your dish with a halved garlic clove; it will give a slight flavor without being too strong. Then arrange the slices of bacon and the fat. Pour in alternating layers of beans and layers of meat until the dish is full. Drizzle with the broth from cooking the beans. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and add a few bits of fat. Bake in a very low oven (around 100°C) for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Finalization Check the cooking regularly: a small skin will form on top of the dish: mix it into the pot several times. The meats will grill slowly, and the beans will soak up the broth and become wonderfully tender.