The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Making a Meal Around Italian Flat Beans

July 10th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Posted in garden, Recipes

One of our favorite green beans

One of our favorite green beans

Our friend Larry responded to a recent post about cooking fresh green beans with an ingenious suggestion to place sprigs of fresh oregano in the cooking water. We’ve got plenty of fresh oregano in our herb bed, and last night we had a chance to try Larry’s method when we gathered with Larry and out-of-town friends for dinner.

We brought a bag of one of our favorite green beans–the flat Italian beans you see in the photo–freshly picked in the garden. Larry had purchased some traditional beans at the farmer’s market and brown yellow wax beans as well. We simply combined them all in a pot with a couple of long stems of oregano. After draining the beans, we dressed them with olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar.

Larry had also made a Sicilian caponata that we spooned onto the dinner plates and covered with broiled shrimp and sauteed baby eggplants. On the side we had a rice salad and interesting salad of curried sweet potatoes. Everyone was sipping homemade peach bellinis, and we finished the meal with my wife’s peach cobbler.

Everything’s coming up green beans and peaches. No complaints here.

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  • Ed Bruske

    Here’s a comment that arrived via e-mail from friend and chef Kevin Weeks, author of the Seriously Good blog:

    Ed,

    I was going to leave a comment on your piece on Italian flat beans (which I love) and then I hit that damned log-in reguirement.It’s kept me from posting previous comments on your blog (and few others that require a login). The number of logins and passwords I have to keep track of has gotten so out of hand I’ve quit logging in to anything that isn’t essential. Reading yoour blog is part of my daily routine, commenting isn’t and so I don’t.

    And as for the beans, my favorite technique is to half cook them in boiling water. Stop them in ice water. Then saute them in olive oil with anchovies, garlic, and a hint of red pepper.

    An observation from the peanut gallery,

    http://KevinsCucina.com
    http://SeriouslyGood.kdweeks.com
    http://chefsline.com
    http://CookingForTwo.about.com

  • Claire

    Wow, Ed! Serious cooks right down the street from us. What a brilliant discovery!

    Just wanted to say thanks to you and Lane for all the fabulous vegetables you laid on us yesterday eve. We’ve admired your garden ever since we moved here from LA just a year ago.

    I whipped some very fragrant pesto today with your basil — pasta tonight! Look forward to checking out some of your recipes.

    We’ll be seeing you in the neighborhood!

    Best,

    Claire and Monte Montgomery
    1390 Kenyon St. NW