It's raining borlotti!

[Domestic Goddess]

There's a deluge of fresh borlotti (cranberry) beans in my part of the world. Any ideas for me on how to fix these beauties?

[Live It Up]

I really like this recipe from food and wine for cranberry beans with tomato and cinnamon. I've made it several times, and I never feel like I have enough.

[slkinsey]

My favorite: Simmer in water until barely tender, drain and set aside. Warm up an ungodly anount of good quality extra virgin olive oil in a pan with some thinly sliced fresh garlic and a nice pinch of crushed red pepper. Add the beans to the oil and warm everything up. Throw in a fistfull of chopped parsley. Season with coarse sea salt. This preparation works with any kind of bean, and really allows you to taste the differences between different the different kinds.

Edited July 9, 2007 by slkinsey (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Thanks Jessica and Slkinsey! I'll pick up a batch and try out your suggestions. My only problem is that I can't get fresh parsley here, only dried ones.

[Maureen B. Fant]

There's a deluge of fresh borlotti (cranberry) beans in my part of the world. Any ideas for me on how to fix these beauties?

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Borlotti are a summer fixture here in Rome, and my Roman mother-in-law is the Bean Queen. She cooks them in the pressure cooker, and has now convinced me to do the same. She soaks them even if they're fresh, but of course not very long. Just put them in a bowl of water for a bit while you're doing other things. Just cover with water, no salt till they're done, and cook on minimum heat for 20 minutes after the water boils. (It's much the same without the pressure cooker, but the skin is more tender with.) Then drain, not too dry (reserving any liquid for soup), dress with good red-wine vinegar and oil, salt and pepper, and there you are. Thin-sliced sweet red onion (we have Tropea in summer) mixed in is perfect. Some good Italian tunafish next to them makes it a complete meal.

Then there's pasta e fagioli, which in summer is made with fresh borlotti and served room-temp or cold. Cook the beans as above, but with a bit of extra water. Separately make a tomato sauce with about a pound of tomatoes (amount not important) to two pounds unshelled weight of beans. In Rome onions are used with beans, not garlic (garlic for lentils). So, make a soffritto with extravirgin oil, onions, carrot, celery, simmer the tomatoes, add some chili and a bay leaf. Then add the beans and all their liquid. Near serving time, add enough more water to cook the pasta. Check the salt. Bring to a boil. Add about half a package of pasta (large-diameter ditalini are best, or broken up linguine), cook till it's done, and basta. Serve with a bottle of good extravirgin oil and let each diner pour some on his plate. You can also pass a little dish of red pepper flakes.

We also freeze fresh borlotti and use them all winter. I also freeze them cooked. You can do all the above with frozen borlotti, but usually I put them in the minestrone.

Edited July 12, 2007 by Maureen B. Fant (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Maureen, I love your simple suggestion with the red wine vinegar and thinly sliced red onion... both of which I happen to have in my kitchen.

I've tried cooking pasta e fagioli... but it didn't really strike my fancy.

[Maureen B. Fant]

I've tried cooking pasta e fagioli... but it didn't really strike my fancy.

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It took me a while to warm to it, and I still usually prefer pasta in restaurants, but when your audience is expecting a primo on the terrace and the kitchen is down a lot of stairs, it becomes very appealing. It's important to use really good tomatoes and really good pasta and plenty of robust oil.