Gigante Beans With Seaweed Salmoriglio

Name: Gigante Beans With Seaweed Salmoriglio
Total time: 2 hours (plus 1 hour for cooling)
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil; 1 fennel bulb, cut into ½" dice (about 1½ cups); 3 celery stalks, sliced ½" thick on a bias (about 2 cups); 3 carrots, cut into roughly ½" pieces (about 1½ cups); 1 onion, cut into ½" dice (about 1 cup); 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 1 lb. dried gigante or cannellini beans, soaked overnight in cool water and drained; 2 Tbsp. fennel seeds; ½ oz. dried kelp (4x6" piece) or 1 Tbsp. smoked dulse flakes; 2 bay leaves; Salt; ½ tsp. dried oregano leaves; 1 cup chopped parsley; ¼ cup chopped mint; 1 garlic clove, grated on a Microplane or minced; Zest and juice of 1 lemon (2 to 3 Tbsp. juice); ½ oz. dried kelp, rehydrated in 1 cup water (best if you use the kelp from cooking the beans), chopped; 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (use the oil skimmed from the beans and add more oil as needed to make 1 cup); Salt; 1 tsp. red chile flakes, such as Aleppo

By Andrew Zimmern and Barton Seaver

September 16, 2025

Gigante Beans With Seaweed Salmoriglio in a bowl

Photo by Eric Wolfinger

Salmoriglio is a Mediterranean sauce with herbs, garlic, and olive oil. In this version, after simmering its umami goodness into a pot of creamy beans, kelp is used as the base of the sauce. There’s a lot of olive oil in this recipe. The oil first simmers with the beans and is then skimmed off to be used in the sauce to ensure all the flavors are perfectly integrated.

Recipe notes

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