Enough people in real life have asked me how I make beans that I have decided to publish my recipe on the Internet. To make around 8 servings:
Place a saucepan on medium to medium-high heat. Throw in some recaíto. Stir it around a bit while it heats up. Once it's all bubbly and sizzling, throw in the tomato sauce. Once that bubbles, throw in the beans. Once that bubbles, turn the heat to a simmer, season the mixture, and stir and scrape the bits off the bottom occasionally to prevent burning. Simmer for about two hours or until you get bored. The longer you cook it, the denser the sauce and the softer the beans. Serve with long grain rice boiled in salted water unless you prefer short grain unsalted rice, in which case you would be making some kind of Hispanic-East Asian fusion dish.
An earlier version of this recipe suggested covering the pot of beans with a lid, but the sauce will thicken faster if you leave it uncovered. Water boils off as the beans simmer, and if you cover the pot then the evaporated water will condense at the bottom of your lid and you'll basically create the water cycle in your pot, keeping your sauce thinner for longer. If that's what you prefer, go right ahead, but I prefer a thicker, paste-like consistency.
To give an incredibly condensed version of the kind of crap you typically see on recipe blogs: my father taught me a half sized version of this recipe with an 8 oz can of tomato sauce when I was in high school. I ate rice and beans most days for lunch and dinner in college so I shifted to this larger version of the recipe. As I've experimented more with cooking I've been eating fewer beans, so as of 2022 I've shifted back to the original half-size version of the recipe. I've noticed that when I cook the half batch, I only need to simmer it for around 45 minutes. If you want to go in the complete opposite direction and keep a century's supply of beans in your chest freezer, feel free to double or quintuple this recipe.
If you are feeling adventurous, make your own tomato sauce or recaíto. If you happen to be immortal and have plenty of time on your hands, use dried beans instead of canned beans. If you really want to mix things up, add some potatoes or chunks of ham to the beans. I have never done this myself, but I can assure you it has the power to add texture and intrigue to this dish, the likes of which you have never seen before.