Cassoulet Toulousain (Toulouse-Style Cassoulet)

About This Recipe

Cassoulet is the great peasant dish of southwest France, a slow-cooked casserole of white beans, multiple cured and confit meats, and a deeply savoury stock that bakes for hours under a breadcrumb crust until it forms a famous mahogany 'croûte' that the cook must break and stir back into the beans seven times during the bake. There are three rival cities and three rival recipes — Castelnaudary (the most austere, pork only), Carcassonne (with mutton), and Toulouse (with confit duck and Toulouse sausage, the most internationally famous). The Toulousain version is built on three pillars: genuine Tarbais beans (a heritage Pyrenean variety with thin skins and a melting texture), proper duck confit (legs cured in salt, then poached and stored in their own fat), and Toulouse sausage (coarse pork seasoned only with salt, pepper and a hint of nutmeg). Everything is layered into a wide earthenware cassole — the unglazed clay vessel that gives the dish its name — and baked very slowly so the beans soak up the meat's fat and the top crisps and crusts. Made properly, cassoulet is a 3-day project: soak the beans on day one, confit and stock on day two, assemble and bake on day three. The reward is a dish of profound, deeply autumnal richness that is one of France's defining country meals.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 600 gdried Tarbais beans (or large lingot beans), soaked overnight in cold water
• 4 legsduck confit (homemade or good-quality jarred), with 3 tbsp of the fat reserved
• 500 gToulouse sausage (coarse, plain pork; or a good Cumberland as substitute), in 8 cm lengths
• 400 gpork shoulder, in 4 cm chunks
• 200 gsmoked pork belly or pancetta in one piece, cut into thick lardons
• 1 largecarrot, halved; 1 onion studded with 2 cloves; 1 head garlic halved across; 1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay, parsley stems)
• 1.5 Lrich pork or duck stock (or chicken stock as substitute)
• 200 gfresh tomato passata or 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 120 gcoarse dry breadcrumbs (mie de pain), for the crust

Instructions

1. 1

   Pre-cook the beans

   Drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh cold water in a pot with the carrot, clove-studded onion, half the garlic, and the bouquet garni. Bring to a bare simmer (never a hard boil — beans will split) and cook 45 minutes until just tender but not mushy. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid.

2. 2

   Brown the meats

   Heat 2 tbsp of the duck fat in a heavy pan over medium-high. Brown the pork shoulder chunks 8 minutes on all sides; remove. Brown the sausages 4 minutes; remove. Render the pork belly lardons 5 minutes until lightly crisped; remove and keep all fat in the pan.

3. 3

   Build a flavour base

   Lower heat to medium. Sweat the remaining garlic and any soft veg trim from the beans in the rendered fat 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato passata and cook 5 minutes until it loses its raw smell. Pour in the bean cooking liquid plus the stock and bring to a simmer.

4. 4

   Combine and slow-stew

   Add the browned pork shoulder and pork belly to the stock. Cover and simmer very gently 90 minutes until the pork is tender. Taste and season — go a touch under on salt, as confit and sausage will add more later.

5. 5

   Layer the cassoulet

   In a wide cassole or deep earthenware/cast-iron dish, spread one-third of the beans. Lay the duck confit legs, sausages, pork shoulder and pork belly across the beans. Cover with the remaining beans and pour over enough cooking liquid to just barely peek through the top of the beans.

   The classic cassole is wider than it is deep — maximum surface area to grow the prized crust.

6. 6

   First bake

   Scatter half the breadcrumbs evenly over the surface and drizzle with the last tbsp of duck fat. Bake uncovered at 150°C (300°F) for 1 hour. The top will form a pale crust.

7. 7

   Break and crust again

   Pull the dish out and break the crust by pushing it down into the beans with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle with the rest of the breadcrumbs and return to the oven. Repeat this break-and-crust step every 25 minutes for another 2 hours — traditionalists do it 7 times total.

8. 8

   Rest before serving

   Pull from the oven and rest 20 minutes — the beans absorb the last of the stock and the crust settles. Serve in deep bowls at the table directly from the cassole with crusty country bread and a glass of Languedoc red.

Variations

• •

  Castelnaudary — drop the duck and use only pork shoulder, pork belly, pork sausage, and a knuckle of ham. Drier, more austere, called the 'father of cassoulets.'

• •

  Carcassonne — add chunks of bone-in mutton or partridge in season; smokier, gamier, less internationally familiar.

• •

  Confit goose instead of duck — historically the original Toulouse version before duck overtook goose in commercial farming.

• •

  Quick weeknight cassoulet — use tinned cannellini, cooked sausages and rotisserie chicken; not authentic but a satisfying 90-minute version.

Storage

Cassoulet improves overnight in the fridge — make it the day before and reheat at 160°C for 45 minutes. Keeps 4 days refrigerated. Freezes well 2 months in single portions; thaw overnight and bake at 170°C with a fresh breadcrumb topping for 35 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions