Any ideas to use beautiful dried beans (haricots)?

[claudinefm]

Hello Everyone - I am a new member trying her hand at joining this forum.

When in France and Turkey this year, I bought some beautiful white dried beans. If anyone has any interesting ideas/recipes as to how to use those, I would be most grateful. Although of french origin, I enjoy italian cooking, therefore my request in this part of the eG forum.

[Maureen B. Fant]

Hello Everyone - I am a new member trying her hand at joining this forum.

When in France and Turkey this year, I bought some beautiful white dried beans.  If anyone has any interesting ideas/recipes as to how to use those, I would be most grateful.  Although of french origin, I enjoy italian cooking, therefore my request in this part of the  eG forum.

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I don't know about interesting -- the more beautiful the beans, the less we tend to do with them. That means boiling them (my mother-in-law, the Bean Queen, swears by the pressure cooker) and serving them with salt, freshly ground pepper, the best red wine vinegar, and the best extra-virgin olive oil. Some thin-sliced spring onion (in summer this could instead by red Tropea onion) can be mixed in. Beans this way are wonderful with good Italian tunafish, but also with various kinds of smoked fish.

The Bean Queen will, after six months of cajoling and pestering, sometimes make fagioli con le cotiche, beans and pork rinds, using the rind of good prosciutto. I don't (yet) have the recipe but it involves tomato.

You can also make pasta e fagioli, though in Rome we prefer borlotti (cranberry-type) beans rather than the white (in Florence and Naples they use white). There are as many recipes as there are cooks. The important thing is you stew the beans in advance, but the pasta is cooked just before serving.

[claudinefm]

Thank you so much for the ideas - I had just looked in my larder and saw those bags of beautiful 'haricots' and could not think of anything clever to do with them. You gave me good ideas. Thanks.

[divina]

ciao from tuscany! Bean eater land!

I have several recipes on my site so stop by for a look.

WE adore our beans, cooked with olive oil, sage and garlic in the water, then salted at the end.

That is the beginning, and as Maureen said just crowned with green peppery olive oil , hot or cold and we are happy.

tuna and beans, cold as a salad garnished with sweet red onions.

As well as bean and pasta soup, with spelt FARRO is popular in Lucca,

Beans cooked in a sage and garlic infused tomato sauce and served with grilled sausage.

Cooked beans warmed in the pan dripping from roast meats!

AHHHHHHHHHHH