1. Soak a cup of beans overnight. I used a quarter cup each of black, Mayacoba, pinto, and hominy. Then rinse them.
2. Get the beans started. Put them in the crock pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Turn it on high.
3. Gather veggies. These are from our garden. Choose whatever you want, but the tomatoes are a must. I didn’t use the little hot ones as this is Italian, not Mexican this time. But I did use the one jalapeno for flavor. It isn’t very hot.
4. Chop all the veggies, but do the onions and garlic first, plus peppers, old gourds, and eggplant if you use them.
5. Saute the “aromatics” (onions and garlic) and the eggplant and peppers while you chop up the tomatoes and basil. Once done, add them to the crock pot so you can saute the hard squash. If you aren’t using a hard squash, skip step 6.
6. If you are using an impossibly hard old squash, saute that too.
7. De-glaze the pot with some wine or sherry to get the yummy brown stuff off the bottom.
8. Throw everything in the crock pot.
9. Add a teaspoon of salt, a couple teaspoons of Italian seasoning, and stir.
Nicci Carrera 