Fresh beans in fresh tomato sauce
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Keywords: saute side entree gluten-free low-carb nut-free soy-free sugar-free vegetarian vegan beans tomatoes onion Italian
Ingredients (4-5)
- 1 pound fresh Coco Bianco beans, about 9 ounces / 255 g shelled
- 2 cups / 475 ml water
- 2 small garlic cloves, peeled
- A small bay leaf
- A 1-inch / 2.5 cm piece of kombu (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 pound / 8 ounces / 225 g small tomatoes good for sauce (Early Girl, grape or other variety)
- 2 tablespoons / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 2 tablespoons minced celery
- 2 tablespoons minced carrot
- 1/8 teaspoon Harissa spice mix, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Additional extra-virgin olive oil for serving
Instructions
The recipe can be made with other varieties of fresh beans, adjusting the cooking time as needed.
Shell the beans.
Place the beans in a saucepan with the water, garlic, bay leaf, kombu (if using) and salt. Bring the water to a lively boil, then turn down the heat and let the beans simmer, covered, until they are tender. Taste them after 20 minutes and estimate if/how much longer they should cook.
Let the beans cool in their cooking broth, then remove the aromatics and discard them. Let the beans rest in their broth until ready to use.
Cut each tomato in half lengthwise, then cut each half into 4-6 slices lengthwise, depending on size (the smaller the pieces, the better).
Warm up the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onion and stir well. After one minute, add the celery and carrot, stir well and cook on medium-low heat, stirring often, for 5 minutes. If using, sprinkle the Harissa spice mix and stir.
Add the tomatoes to the pan, turn up the heat to medium, stir well, then turn down the heat to low, cover and cook, stirring often, until you have a tomato sauce, 15 minutes or so.
Drain the beans, then add them and 1/2 cup / 120 ml of their cooking liquid to the pan. (Depending on how you plan to serve the beans, you may add all the cooking liquid: that is what I do, to obtain a soupy dish.) Stir well and cover. Cook for 5 minutes, sprinkle the salt, stir well.
Take the pan off the heat, taste and adjust the salt.
After plating, drizzle some olive oil on the beans and serve immediately.
The beans can be eaten as is or enriched with pasta or paired with cooked sausage or in any number of other ways.
