fagiolini con pomodoro, aglio, e basilico (green beans with tomato)

SUPER healthy, vegan, fast, easy, affordable. No fancy techniques here – and yet, the best green beans I’ve had in as long as I can remember. This is the kind of simple recipe you want to use when you have delicious, fresh ingredients, and you want the flavor of the ingredients to be the star of the dish.

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I got this recipe from the Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens, but this is actually a Marcella Hazan recipe from her 1986 book Marcella’s Italian Kitchen.

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“The proportions Hazan recommends are one pound of fresh ripe tomatoes, a pound-and-a-half of green beans, a half-cup olive (ed: oil), two teaspoons of chopped garlic, salt, pepper and one cup of fresh basil leaves.  For pasta sauce, increase the tomatoes to a pound-and-a-half and the garlic to three teaspoons.

In a skillet large enough to hold everything, sauté the garlic in the olive oil until it’s golden, add the peeled, roughly chopped tomatoes, and cook at high heat for about five minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium, add salt and pepper to taste and the beans, whole or sliced and cook until the beans are tender.  If, when the beans are done, there’s still some watery tomato juice in the skillet, remove the beans and turn up the heat to reduce the extra liquid.  When the sauce has reduced, return the beans to the skillet, add the basil and serve either as a side dish or on pasta.”

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recipe created by Marcella Hazan, from her 1986 book Marcella’s Italian Kitchen, discovered thanks to the Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

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I got some musica pole beans and a huge tomato from the farmer’s market. Never tried those flat green beans before, and was worried about how thick and fibrous they seemed when raw, but this recipe was beyond delicious. This would work just as well with round green beans as thick flat green beans.

For (cough) some of us (Americans), it can be hard to get used to cooking with delicious, fresh ingredients, because we are accustomed to cooking with the flavorless veggies we can actually afford. We use the most flavorful techniques, like sprucing up a $2 head of broccoli with cheese or a ton of lemon, so that they are edible.

This is the polar opposite. You’re not creating a sauce or a tadka to camouflage the flavorless veg. You’re creating a symphony of flavors where the lead singer (I hate this metaphor) is the green bean (why would a symphony have a lead singer?)

I really can’t speak highly enough of this recipe. This tastes nothing like what you’re picturing, with bits of flavorless green bean floating in a tomato-paste-based tomato sauce from a jar. This tastes so sweet and fresh and perfect. You’ll eat the whole thing. If you are fortunate enough to have the space for a garden, this recipe is extremely affordable, too!

Just make sure you’re using garden (or farmers market) ingredients for this one. If you’re using industrially produced tomatoes and beans, or if it’s off-season, can I recommend Sichuan blistered green beans or green bean salad with olive and sun-dried tomato?

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sichuan blistered green beans

Dry-frying is a seriously under-utilized technique! Beyond the obvious health benefits of using little to no oil, dry-frying veggies lends an amazing texture, almost like they have been grilled. They’re blistered and blackened in spots on the surface, but stay crisp in the middle. This method of cooking is so fast that the veggies maintain lots of nutrients. Super healthy, but WAY tastier than anything that seems like it could be healthy.

Remember my post about blistered asparagus? Similar idea, but we’re doing the green beans in a wok or skillet instead of baking.

In the summer, I make mine without pork. Why? I mean, I love pork, and lots of Sichuan recipes like mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐) just don’t taste right without the pork. However, summer green beans from my local farmers market have such an incredible flavor. It’s really not necessary to add any meat! I also made it without the sui mi ya cai (pickled greens) because I am trying to watch my sodium. So I’ll post two recipes here – the original, by Maggie Zhu of Omnivore’s Cookbook, which is authentic. My version is lower in salt, lower in cholesterol and fats, and something you could eat every week! (or, at least, I could…)

Probably my favorite green bean recipe!

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RECIPE #1 – adapted by me
Sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
pinch of sugar

Stir fry
tiny splash of veggie oil, just enough that the beans don’t stick to the skillet
1 pound (450 grams) green beans, tough ends removed
1 teaspoon whole Szechuan peppercorn
3 dried chili peppers
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, minced

1. Heat wok or skillet on med-high to high heat with splash of oil until wok is rippin’ hot.
2. Throw in green beans. Keep them moving, stirring every thirty seconds. Turn down heat if wok produces too much smoke.
3. Remove green beans when they look nice and blistered. Add another splash of oil and turn down heat to medium.
4. Add Sichuan peppercorns to oil. Remove peppercorns when they turn brown.
5. Add chilis, ginger, and garlic. Keep stirring til your kitchen smells great (maybe 1 minute).
6. Add green beans back to chili-ginger-garlic oil in wok. Stir to coat and turn off heat.

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RECIPE #2 – the original, by Maggie Zhu of Omnivore’s Cookbook

Sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar (note: this is, for real, a lot)

Stir fry
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound (450 grams) green beans
1/2 pound (220 grams) ground pork
3 tablespoons minced Sichuan pickled mustard greens (Sui Mi Ya Cai)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon whole Szechuan peppercorn
3 dried chili peppers
1 tablespoon garlic , minced
1 teaspoon ginger , minced

1. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside. Dry the green beans thoroughly before cooking to prevent oil splatter.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until hot. Add the green beans and stir to coat well with oil. Spread the beans to prevent them from overlapping, as much as possible. Flip every 15 seconds or so. Cook and stir until the surface is mostly brown and withered, 10 to 15 minutes. Turn to medium heat if the pan starts to smoke too much. Remove the pan from the stove. Transfer the green beans to a plate and set aside. (*Footnote 4)
3. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and the Sichuan peppercorns to the pan. Cook over medium heat until the peppercorns turn dark. Scoop out and save for later. (*Footnote 5)
4. Add the ground pork, Sichuan pickled mustard greens, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook and chop the pork to separate it into small pieces. When the surface of the pork turns golden, add the dried chili pepper, garlic, and ginger. Stir a few seconds to release the fragrance. Add back the green beans and pour the sauce over them. Cook and stir until the sauce is mostly absorbed, about 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Remove the pan from the stove and taste a green bean. If it’s not salty enough, add a pinch more salt, return the pan to the stove, and stir to mix well. Transfer everything to a plate.
6. Serve hot on top of rice as a main, or as a side.

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If you like your green beans texturally interesting and incredibly flavorful, you have to try this recipe! If you prefer them stewed, can I recommend fasolakia, green beans stewed in oniony tomato sauce? If you like them sour, nothing is better than some lacto-fermented green beans. & if you like your green beans way sweeter, try this Americanized version of Sichuan green beans with hoisin.

green bean salad with olive and sun-dried tomato

600g fresh green beans, ends removed
10 large green olives, pitted and sliced
10 large kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
50g sundried tomatoes, chopped
75g sliced almonds, toasted
¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced

steam green beans 3-5 mins. plunge into cold water.

chop, combine with other ingredients, refrigerate.

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from here

crunchy sweet “Chinese” green beans

1 clove garlic, minced
1-inch knob of fresh ginger, minced (should equal about 2 teaspoons)
2 Tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (this will be spicy – reduce, if you prefer less spice)
1 Tablespoon oil
1 pound green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces and rubbed dry with a towel

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Whisk together the first seven ingredients (through crushed red pepper) in a small bowl. Set aside.
Heat the sunflower oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed saute pan over medium-high heat. Just when the sunflower oil begins to shimmer, add the green beans and sauté, stirring constantly, until they begin to blacken in small spots, about 3 minutes. (Note: Be careful when adding the green beans to the pan, as they should sizzle and pop a bit if the oil is hot enough. This process should go very quickly, with the green beans retaining a bright green color, even though they will start to blacken a bit in spots.)
Add the sauce to the pan, stirring to coat the green beans. Cook just until the sauce reduces slightly, about 2 minutes.

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recipe by inquiring chef

lacto-fermented green bean pickles

recipe requested by erica!

also called “dilly beans” and one of my favorite pickles. crunchy and satisfying.

wash a bunch of green beans (or wax beans, or anything tender) well, and stand ’em up in a clean glass jar.

as you do this, layer things you like – garlic or onion or both, fresh herbs of any kind, spices, anything – in the jar.

add saltwater about as salty as your tears (leave head room!)

lid the thing, shake and burp a few times a day to off-gas.

don’t cram the jar too full. just full enough.

some flavor combos i really like?

garlic-dill
garlic-cumin-coriander-black mustard seed
garlic-basil
onion-bayleaf-yellow mustard seed
onion-allspice-clove-yellow mustard seed
sorrel-hotpepper

or any combination you like!

(try to use whole spices if you can, and try to crack once in a mortar and pestle to release flavor without grinding! but ground spices are ok, too.)

the lactobacillus bacteria will do the rest – preserving the beans, while imparting a tangy, sour flavor and simultaneously populating your gut with healthy bacteria that reduce risk or severity of depression, celiacs, insomnia, obesity, colon cancer, GI disorders and inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis.

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i’ve used this method for years without ever getting sick from it, but it is possible to contract botulism with this closed-jar method. if you’re worried, you can try this 100% safe open-crock method.

fasolakia

fasolakia – stewed green beans