Harvest 12 large sage leaves and cut horizontally into strips.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil until rippling. (This is a low fat recipe - 2 Tblsp. would be more common) and add the sage. Stir for a minute or two and savour the aroma.

Add 2 minced cloves of garlic, reduce the heat, and cook another minute. People will be asking what you're doing in there.

Peel, seed and dice two large, vine ripened tomatoes and add to the pan. Heat over a medium element until the tomatoes have become a lumpy but heady sauce.

Add 4 cups of cooked navy beans. These are also known as white beans and because of their small size, as haricot beans, a tonier but seldom used name here. (And for a third alias, the incompetent menu typist at my father's restaurant in the 60's interpreting what he thought he heard, tapped out "knobby bean soup".) I always prepare them from dried beans - 2 cups, soaked for four hours, rinsed, boiled for 45 minutes or dried beans will do just as well. The advantage of starting with dried beans is that you can control the texture. I like them slightly firm but for a related soup (no tomatoes, more garlic) you can cook them to a creamy consistency.

Simmer to blend the flavours and season with salt and pepper.

Serve warm outdoors with salad and a beer.

If you increase the oil to a 1/4 cup. double the tomatoes and replace the sage with a large sprig of fresh thyme and a bay leaf you'll get a thicker sauce in greater quantity. This the Greek version known as fasoulia. Discard the thyme sprig before serving. Garnish with onion rings and chopped thyme.

The low version is nutritious, delicious and cheap and requires no unsavoury activities like operating an abattoir, all for me attractive virtues.