The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Gotta Love These Beans

June 21st, 2011 · 2 Comments · Posted in garden, Recipes

Flat beans sauteed with anchovies and garlic

My green breans braised three hours have become world renown. But to my mind, there’s a new contender for best green beans. That would be these Italian-style flat beans harvested in our garden yesterday and sauteed with garlic and anchovies.

They are so meaty and delicious. Heck, they could almost stand in for this rib eye steak. Nothing really compares with food picked fresh in the garden, and beans grown organically–fed only compost, no artificial fertilizers or pesticides–beat store-bought beans hands down. (In fact, I would recommend the store-bought beans for braising, the fresh-picked beans for a lighter treatment.)

These beans are so easy. Simply cook a pound of them in plenty of salted water until just tender. Drain them into a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Meanwhile, in a heavy pan over moderately low heat saute two finely chopped garlic cloves in plenty of extra-virgin olive oil. Season the garlic with salt. When it’s tender, “melt” a can of drained anchovies in the pan. You might want to give the anchovies a poke with a spatula to help break them up.

When the anchovies are completely incorporated, add the beans and toss them well until they are completely coated with the oil, the garlic, the anchovies, and heated through.

Beans soak up the egg yolk just fine

Apparently, the rest of my family are not such big fans of anchovies because I had beans left over. That’s okay with me. I just heat them up in the morning for breakfast, topped with a couple of fried eggs. Anchovy-flavored beans and farm-fresh egg yolks: What could be better?

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