A few years ago, my daughter Abby walked into the kitchen, saw a pot of beans on the stove and said, “You know what would be really good? If you made beans the way you make mac and cheese.” And she was right. Partly. Because here’s the beauty of this dinner: The whole béchamel thing that is usually so crucial to making mac and cheese? I skipped that part. The cream? Skipped that, too. The multiple pots and pans? Nope! This meal is cooked in one pot. Its relation to mac and cheese lies mostly in the crunchy topping and the peppery cheeses mixed in with the beans. Brilliant.
NOTE: I serve this with a chopped tomato salad—3 to 4 cups of chopped cherry tomatoes with basil, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and minced red onion—but any simple green salad (and maybe even a piece of crusty bread) would be just fine.
