Tomato and gigante bean bake/pizza beans from Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites (page 143) by Deb Perelman

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Ingredients

mozzarella cheese
celery
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Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Accompaniments: My go-to garlic bread

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

theya_9njwyi on June 04, 2026

Delicious weeknight meal.
lourdesj on May 19, 2026

So tasty! When you want pasta but had pasta yesterday. I use canned cannellini or butter beans and add thyme. I have made this many times, always delicious.
Salviocooks on April 04, 2026

Another family fave. We can’t always get the large beans (no Gigante where we live but we’ve been able to get Corona beans or lima beans too), and have used canned small white beans, but the large beans do really add to the recipe.
lynette_27j6kb on February 25, 2026

We love this recipe. I made the meaty version with Italian sausage. Very yummy. And used canned butter beans for the size and texture. Perfect
abigayle_d5od7q on January 26, 2026

Pizza beans - a magical way to get my spouse to eat a bean!
Skamper on August 01, 2025

We both liked this. I made a half batch using the full amounts of onion and kale. Thanks to EYB reviews, I amped up the garlic and added dried oregano and penzeys pizza spice when I added it to the aromatics. It also used the white wine, and added maybe 1/2 c BTB (didn't measure) to keep it from being to dry. It was nicely browned after 13 minutes in the oven.
lholtzman on November 06, 2024

I think I’ll use canned beans in the future. Both times I’ve made this, my beans take too long to cook. This is a nice pantry recipe and a great way to use up vegetables that have been lingering in your fridge. Save yourself more time and hassle by using pre-shredded mozzarella. Also, don’t skip the garlic bread. It is sooooo good.
Pandan on July 21, 2024

This was quite nice. I added dried oregano and fresh basil at the end. Also added fresh mozzarella instead of grated and two canned giant beans instead of dried. Still not totally pizza-y, but nice semi-healthy dish with some hidden kale (used really finely chopped frozen kale). I used two small (400g) cans of chopped tomatoes with herbs, because I didn’t want to have leftover tomatoes and omitted the broth. Put in a pinch of MSG instead. Next time I will use a different pan: didn’t want to use my cast iron pan because of the tomatoes and used a non stick skillet instead not thinking about the high oven temperature. Served it today with some leftover couscous, will make the garlic bread with it tomorrow.
Soulkitchenjen on June 03, 2024

This was…fine as is. It actually was better put on top of the garlic bread. I think it needs oregano and maybe some pepperoni to make it taste more like pizza and less like some kinda vegetable soup.
patioweather on May 10, 2024

Agree with everyone that this needs the pizza spices like oregano to really give a pizza vibe.
morleigh10 on May 08, 2024

Made this and didn't love it. It definitely needed more seasoning, maybe would add some oregano or garlic powder or something next time. Not going to rush to make this one again though.
Dannausc on February 12, 2023

Fine but not great.
Ajammies on February 09, 2023

agree, these are pretty mellow in flavor, I would definitely bump up the garlic and maybe add some other spices to make it more "pizza" flavor
Rinshin on January 24, 2023

As written it is surprisingly bland baked beans dish with catchy name made more visually appealing with cheesy topping much like Tex Mex pinto beans. Going in I knew I had to up the flavor by adding more herbs and small splash of fish sauce but wished I did not add the full amount of tomato called for in this recipe. The cooked taste of Marcella beans with sofrito were already very good, but adding this much canned tomato ruined the wonderful bean flavor. I much prefer charro, bbq, cowboy or simple baked beans than this one. I normally like Smitten Kitchen recipes but this one was disappointing. Even though i love Marcella beans in other applications, I ended up throwing out the leftovers.
CheesyKranskyLove on October 04, 2022

This was fine but no where near as good as an actual pizza
VineTomato on May 17, 2020

I'll come clean and admit to x4 the greens in this dish, so I don't recommend you try that! I live in the UK and through a rather complicated route got my hands on a selection of Rancho Gordo beans (the joy!) I used my precious royal corona beans and it came out as more of a soup than a bake. I used swiss chard in place of kale for Mr VT, and even then he could not eat them - he hated this dish (unusual for him to refuse to eat a dish) - I thought they were nice enough but not amazing. Maybe if I followed the recipe ...
Frenchfoodie on July 18, 2018

Made with spinach rather than kale. Was ok but didn’t wow me, needed more garlic, more herbs, more something...
Lepa on March 03, 2018

These are fine. They were well received with accompanying hunks of garlic bread but they didn't wow me and I'm not sure I'll make them again. I love beans but I would always choose lasagna or some other cheesy pasta dish over these beans.
southerncooker on January 24, 2018

I used dried giant limas for the beans and cooked them on Sunday in my IP. I also prepped my veggies and put them in the fridge so when I came home from work today I just had to continue with the recipe. We loved the pizza beans. Like someone else said I don't use a recipe for garlic bread usually but this version was delicious.
Rutabaga on January 16, 2018

Calling these "pizza beans" was not enough to encourage my children to eat them, although the six-year-old was coerced into eating his portion with the kale removed. I agree with Zosia that the kale was very noticeable here (maybe one whole bunch was a little much?), which isn't an issue for me personally, but doesn't endear it to those who are apprehensive about kale. Because I couldn't find gigante beans in any local stores I visited, I used cannellini, which did the trick, although I imagine gigantic beans would be more fun. It's very easy to prepare in advance, so I can see turning to it again, but probably leaving out the kale or substituting something my family prefers, such as mushrooms.
Zosia on October 31, 2017

This is a delicious alternative to a baked pasta dish that everyone in my family enjoyed. The kale wasn't as well hidden as I'd hoped and though there wasn't enough to offend anyone, I do think I'll replace it with spinach next time. I assembled the dish the night before and baked from the refrigerator for 30 min at 375F to make sure it was heated through, then finished under the broiler to brown.