If you decide to cook this dish from scratch, I would suggest that you follow Julia Child’s advice and stretch the cooking out over a day or two. Any combination of pork or lamb and sausage may be used. Traditionally, duck confit (dark duck meat braised in its own fat) is one of the ingredients, but chicken thighs sautéed in bacon have a similar smoky richness. Serve with a mixed green salad, plenty of good bread, and a simple fruit dessert.

Sue Kleber

Soak white beans overnight in water or put in a potwith a generous amount of water to cover and bring toa simmer, cover and remove from heat and allow tosteep for an hour.In either method, discard the water, which shouldremove the disagreeable element that causes peopleto shun beans in the first place.

Put olive oil into an 8 quart or larger Dutch oven and sauté the onion and the celery until translucent but not brown. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add spices, salt and bouillon cube and sauté for another minute. Add the ham hocks and water and simmer until the hocks are tender (About 2 hours). Add the beans to the pot and cook until just tender (About 1 1/2 hours, depending on the size and age of the beans). Remove ham hocks from the pot and allow them to cool. When cool, remove the tough outer rind and discard. Skim excess fat from the top of the beans and return the hocks to the pot.

Step Two
3 slices bacon, minced
2 to 2 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, each thigh sliced into 2 pieces parallel to the bone
4 links Cajun style Andouille sausage, each link cut into 4 sections
1 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or boneless country style ribs, cut into 2 inch chunks
1 onion, minced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB tomato paste
1/2 tsp thyme
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, chopped fine
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
several ladles of the bean broth

In a large skillet with tall sides, sauté the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon bits and reserve. Pour off bacon drippings and reserve. Deglaze skillet with bean broth and add broth back to the beans. Return bacon fat to the skillet and sauté the chicken pieces until deeply golden. Remove chicken to a plate, remove and save drippings and deglaze again.

Sauté sausage until crisp and place in a baking dish large enough to hold all the ingredients. Return fat to the skillet and sauté pork cubes on all sides until darkly golden. Remove the cubes and reserve. Add onion and celery and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and tomato paste and sauté. Add thyme, tomatoes, wine, sugar and correct for salt and pepper. Return the pork cubes to the skillet, cover and cook for about 40 minutes or until tender. Remove the pork cubes to the
baking dish and add chicken to the tomato mixture and cook for about 20 minutes. Add chicken to the baking dish and add the tomato sauce to the bean pot.

Step Three
reserved bacon bits
2 cups bread crumbs
2 TB olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Ladle the beans over the meats in the baking dish and mix gently. Bake uncovered until hot and the liquid has evaporated to a consistency you like. Mix bread crumbs, bacon and olive oil together and sprinkle evenly over the casserole. Bake until the crumbs are golden brown.