Some dinners become better when you stop watching the clock. Beans are one of them. Soak cannellini overnight in plenty of cool water; tomorrow they will ask for little more than a pot, fresh water, and a low, patient flame.
Add a crushed garlic clove, a few sage leaves, and a strip of lemon peel if you have one. Bring the pot just to a boil, skim the first foam, then lower the heat until the water barely moves. Salt when the beans are beginning to soften, not before.
When the beans give way to a spoon, turn off the heat and let them rest in their cooking liquid. Remove the lemon peel, add a generous pour of good olive oil, and taste for salt. Some beans will be supper with toast; the rest can become tomorrow's lunch with bitter leaves and vinegar.
A pot of beans with nowhere to be. Cannellini, sage, and a glossy pool of good oil. It is dinner. It is also tomorrow’s lunch.