Put the dried beans - Cannellini, which are traditionally used in Tuscany, aren’t easy to come by elsewhere - to soak the evening before.
The following morning (or in any case, after 8 hours) strain them, tip them into a saucepan and cover with cold water (for 400 g of beans you will need about 2 litres). Add the garlic, sage, olive oil and salt, and put the pan on the stove over a low heat. The water should boil very slowly, without “agitating” the beans. It’s not easy to give a precise cooking time; it depends on the type of beans, on their “age”... but don’t worry, there’s a solution that’s always valid when cooking – taste them! In the meanwhile, in a terracotta pot or a heavy-bottomed steel saucepan, over a moderate heat, put two cloves of garlic and the sage leaves to cook with the olive oil. Add the tomato paste, diluted in half a glass of water, and the peeled tomatoes. Season with salt and cook the sauce for about 15 minutes. Add the cooked and strained beans to the pot, season with salt, if necessary, and add a sprinkling of pepper. Put the lid on the pan and simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring delicately from time to time. The sauce should be thick, the beans cooked but not falling apart, and everything should be well amalgamated.

Beans prepared “all’uccelletto” are rarely offered on their own. Normally they are served with meat (beef, chicken, rabbit or pork), even stewed with tomato. “La loro morte” (literally “their death”, meaning the best way to taste them), as we say around here, is with pork sausages, pricked here and there with a fork and cooked for 5-10 minutes in a frying pan to brown them. When the recipe says to add the tomatoes, put the sausages in as well (generally speaking 1 per person, or 2 for anyone particularly hungry!) and let them continue to cook as the sauce thickens.
“Fagioli all’uccelletto”, both with and without sausages, are always greatly appreciated... by young and old alike.