🥔 SIDE
Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato)
Soft cannellini beans simmered in olive oil scented with garlic and sage, then stewed in tomato until glossy, the Tuscan contorno for sausages and grilled meat.
Italian (Tuscan) · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 90 min · plus 12 h hands-off time
~426 cal · 17g protein · 50g carbs · 18g fat · 13g fiber · 4g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Fagioli all'uccelletto are one of the everyday side dishes of Tuscany, found on home tables and in trattorias across the region and above all around Florence and Prato. Cooked white cannellini beans are warmed in olive oil that has been flavoured with garlic and plenty of sage, then stewed with tomato until they sit in a thick, glossy sauce.
The name means beans "in the style of the little bird", and nobody is quite sure why. Pellegrino Artusi, the nineteenth-century author of Italy's best-known home cookbook, thought it came from the seasonings: garlic and sage were the aromatics used for roasting small game birds, so beans cooked with them were done bird-style.
They are served hot as a contorno next to grilled or pan-fried sausages, a steak or roast pork, with bread to mop up the sauce. Many Tuscan cooks go one step further and the sausages right in the pan with the beans, turning the side dish into a meal.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 300 g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water
- 2 litres water, for cooking the beans
- 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus a little to finish
- 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled and lightly crushed
- 10 fresh sage leaves
- 400 g tinned peeled plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
Instructions
- 1Drain and rinse the soaked beans, put them in a large pot with the water and bring to the boil, skimming off the foam. Lower the heat, half cover and simmer gently for about 60 minutes, until tender but still whole. Salt the water only in the last 10 minutes. Drain, keeping a cup of the cooking liquid.✎ Chef’s noteA lively boil splits the skins; keep it at a lazy simmer.
- 2Warm the olive oil in a wide pan, ideally earthenware, over low heat with the crushed garlic and sage leaves until the garlic is golden and the sage is fragrant and starting to crisp.
- 3Add the tomatoes and let them bubble for 5 minutes, then tip in the drained beans with a small ladle of their cooking liquid.
- 4Simmer gently for about 20 minutes, stirring now and then with a wooden spoon so the beans do not break, until the sauce has thickened and clings to them. Add a splash more bean liquid if it gets too dry. Season with salt and pepper.
- 5Serve hot with a thread of raw olive oil over the top, next to grilled sausages or roast meat, with bread.
Tuscan home cooking, Florence and Prato.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tuscany. The bistecca is a specification rather than a recipe. A T-bone cut five or six centimetres thick from a young Chianina steer or heifer, grilled over wood, turned once, served rare and carved at the table. Asking for it cooked through is treated as a misunderstanding rather than a preference.
🗺️
Italy. The full sequence of antipasto, primo, secondo and contorno is a special-occasion structure; most days a household eats one course, a vegetable and coffee. Bread stays on the table throughout and is not really a course at all, and using it to wipe the plate clean is expected enough to have its own name, fare la scarpetta, making the little shoe.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Italy
Pasta alla NormaFried eggplant, tomato, basil, and salted ricotta over pasta, Catania's tribute to its favorite opera.
Tagliatelle al RagùBologna’s slow-simmered meat sauce folded through fresh ribbon pasta, the dish the world calls "bolognese," done right.
Spaghetti alle VongoleSpaghetti tossed with clams, garlic, white wine, and parsley, the Bay of Naples in eight ingredients.
Browse all Italy recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Oven.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it an Italy meal
LimoncelloDrink
TiramisùDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Chirmol (Guatemalan Charred Tomato and Mint Salsa)Guatemala
Blitva (Dalmatian Swiss Chard and Potatoes)Croatia
Marineeritud Kõrvits (Estonian Sweet Pickled Pumpkin)Estonia
Patates Lemonates (Greek Lemon Roast Potatoes)Greece
Batatas a Murro (Portuguese Punched Potatoes)Portugal
Guineítos en Escabeche (Puerto Rican Pickled Green Bananas)Puerto Rico
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato)?
Soft cannellini beans simmered in olive oil scented with garlic and sage, then stewed in tomato until glossy, the Tuscan contorno for sausages and grilled meat.
Where does Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato) come from?
Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato) is an Italian (Tuscan) dish from Tuscany, Italy.
Can Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Fagioli all’Uccelletto (Tuscan Beans with Sage and Tomato) take to make?
About 13 h 45 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 90 minutes cooking, plus 12 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.