Rice and Beans - Mateus' Style

I request this dinner of Mateus regularly.  I am a big rice fan, and bean bean fan, and and a MAJOR FAN of nights when Mateus cooks dinner and I don't have to.  (I know, I know,  I clearly love to cook.  But a break here and there is always welcome.)

Mat makes a mean bean by just cooking up some pancetta (or bacon) in a pot, adding some onion, garlic, bay leaf and spices (like adobo, salt and pepper), throwing in some canned black beans and cooking the hell out of it. Sometimes we add cilantro, sometimes some chilis.  But we always serve over rice.

Since there is already starch and a little meat involved, I came up with the salad on top.  We like a little cool lettuce and tomato with a squeeze of lime it top it off (I may have stolen that from how we would eat our salads in Costa Rica - just thrown on top of everything else).

Make it for yourself and thing of hearty lunches in Brazil or Costa Rica.  You come in tired and waterlogged from the beach, shovel some rice and beans in your mouth, and sleep off the hottest part of the day.  Amazing.