Salty beans, borlotti comfort
Cooking the med in.....4 ingredients!
Being in Sicily and looking at the Mediterranean was not the same this time, while atrocities on the other side happening (and they still do). Taking a swim in blue waters in gentle autumn warmth with the sun hanging low in the sky. It felt different.
And then what do you do? You gather around the table, to find some meaning and share the love and helplessness we all feel by so much injustice. After all, we are all people and we deserve the same rights, no one is less than someone else. And seeing the role of the oppressed change to the oppressor again and again is just tragic.
TIME FOR BORLOTTI
So i turn to beans today. Beans are comforting. I need comfort and we need comfort. And also because we found the fresh borlotti beans in Sicily and man how i love them! You have to be lucky to find them, and if not there is always the dried ones! Although fresh is the best. They never overcook and stay firm and soft at the same time.
SALTY BEANS
There was long this idea that you shouldn’t use salt to cook your beans or legumes, it would make their skins though and you would ruin them. Well luckily things evolve and we can leave this all behind. Because beans and other dried stuff need to swim salty waters just like Italians make their pasta swim. Salty as the sea. The Sicilian sea in this case. And so i did. In the Chiaramonte house of my friend Roberta amidst wise 1000 year old olive trees i cooked our beans in salty water. Almost too salty so i thought. I mixed them with just very delicious tomato in small cubes and just as small cubes of red onion, of course a delicious flat red Sicilian tomato. Doused with a really nice red wine vinegar and olive oil. No salt that was inside the beans. It sounds like no recipe. But it was so delicious and it was everyone’s favorite dish of the evening. I had to try it again.
FREE BEANS
Today these beans are free for everyone. Not only because it’s just really simple. And we need this simplicity today. But also on a day like today we have to feel we are all one group of people. If only stupidly belonging to a newsletter.
SALTY BEAN SALAD FOR EVERYONE
serves 4
300 g (fresh) borlotti beans (if they are not fresh soak them for few hours)
2 shallots or pink flat italian onions or Tropea onion or any nice pinkish not too sharp onion you can find
3-4 ripe roma tomatoes (if they happen to come from a garden or farmers market, even better!)
the absolute best expensive olive oil you can find
the best red wine vinegar you can find, i used a cabernet sauvignon vinegar.
Boil the beans in heavily salted water (salt as the sea) until they are tender enough (but not mushy at all! so if you use canned beans it will be very different as they are not salty and mushy) This will depend on if you have fresh or dried beans and how old they are. But usually it doesn’t take more than 1 hour. Strain and leave to cool.
Slice the onion finely and chop tomatoes in small cubes too. Mix everything and add generously the olive oil and vinegar. Serve or wait a bit and serve with crusty bread and some anchovy butter.
