31 July 2016

Green beans and red beans

Yesterday Walt picked our first haricots verts of the season. We had some tomatoes that I bought at the market — ours are still ripening on the vines — so I decided to make one of our favorites: green beans à l'italienne. It's a recipe from one of my favorite French cookbooks, Monique Maine's Cuisine pour toute l'année, published nearly 50 years ago.


Because there weren't as many green beans as I would normally cook for the dish, I decided to add some already-cooked red beans to the mix, along with the standard onion, shallot, and garlic. The beans and tomatoes cooked on low heat for nearly an hour in a mixture of olive oil, water, and rosé wine. As you can see, the tomatoes cooked but the pieces held together.


To round out the meal, we made brochettes de poulet et de merguez — that's chunks of marinated chicken breast and pieces of spicy North African beef-and-lamb sausages on skewers. Walt cooked the meat on the barbecue grill as the beans cooked on the stove indoors. Our spell of dry, warm weather continues.

5 comments:

  1. I never had those combinations of foods- they look very tasty. You two have more variety in your cuisine than most people for sure. I bet the chicken had a spicy taste in combination with those sausages. I hope you get your first tomatoes soon.

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  2. My husband used to say that Everything tasted better when cooked on a grill :)
    I love grilled fish and vegetables. My grandfather took me camping a few times when I was a wee little girl and he could cook an amazing meal in one pan on a fire ... ( he was a Marine Drill Sgt later became a chef in a posh restaurant lol )

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  3. Ohhhh, the rosé wine is an addition I hadn't remembered for that Italian green bean recipe. The kebabs look great, and I'll bet they were tasty!
    Yesterday, I decided to follow your directions for Mme Pépin's cheese soufflé -- very nice! I posted on FB about it.

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    Replies
    1. When in doubt, add wine. Or more wine. It sweetens everything up.

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