Skip to main content

braised romano beans with heirloom tomatoes and purple leaf sweet basil

 

Romano beans braised in heirloom tomato sauce, shallots and garlic make an easy summer side dish -excellent served with grilled fish and potato purée.  I know because that's what we had for dinner last Saturday night.  I happily used purple basil from my own herb pots that are now watered with leftover shower water.  We have many more months of drought ahead of us in California and apparently mask wearing when in public, no not in the car.

I appreciate our farmers markets more than ever, thank you farmers for romano beans and heirloom tomatoes and also myself for the fresh purple basil.

Such a treat to find fresh romano green beans at the farmers market; they hold up to a fairly long, about 20 minute braise and become tender in the tomato broth from the heirloom tomatoes.  🍅 This is one of those simple good veg recipes.

Ingredients and Recipe for Romano Beans with Heirloom Tomatoes and Purple Leaf Sweet Basil
Serves 2-4

1 pound fresh romano beans, washed and trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, sliced
1 large garlic clove, minced 
2 large heirloom tomatoes, chopped
Fresh purple leaf basil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large high sided skillet with a lid, heat the olive oil and stir in the shallot slices.  Cook and stir  3-4 minutes -until soft, add the garlic, stir for about 30 seconds.  Stir in the romano beans, cook and stir for a few minutes, add the tomatoes.  Stir everything together and bring to a low simmer, put on the lid.  Braise the romanos until tender, the tomatoes will break down to make a tomato sauce.  Add sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Place the romano bean mixture into a shallow bowl that holds everything and sprinkle with fresh purple leaf basil, serve.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

springtime chamomile tea cake with strawberry icing

 Good grief, Easter is in the rear view mirror and we are deep into this new year.  And once again it's tea time at my house.  This chamomile tea cake is a beautiful sweet addition to any tea ritual, especially my favorite, chamomile tea, which I rediscovered in my hotel room in Carmel earlier this fast moving year.  I highly recommend a slice of chamomile tea cake with strawberry 🍓 icing with a cup of chamomile tea to just take a moment and slow this year down.  Baking with tea is both creative and fun.  Earlier this year I made Earl Gray sugar cookies which are made using the same method of infusing the butter with loose tea.  For my tea cake I also rubbed the lemon zest into the sugar -another way to lend a pop of citrus to your baking. The strawberry icing is made using freeze dried strawberries, I pulverize them in my spice mill and then they are pressed through a fine sieve into the confectioner's sugar.  In addition to using lemon zest rub...

artichoke, green olive and caper tapenade

artichoke, green olive and caper tapenade serves 6 We spent last weekend with friends at their country home.  They made dinner at home one night so  I brought a couple of appetizers to share.  My tapenade is easy to make, just spoon the blended artichoke mix into a terrine then pack in an ice chest for a short road trip.  I like to serve it spread on small crisp crackers but toasted sliced baguette works well too.  Save a sprinkle of capers for the top of your tapenade before serving and enjoy. recipe for artichoke, green olive and caper tapenade  serves 6 One 14 ounce jar of artichoke hearts packed in water, drained and cut into quarters 1/3 cup pitted green olives, I like Castelvetrano green olives 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons capers, plus extra for sprinkling on top 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice  2 cloves garlic, minced Aleppo pepper to taste, I use a scant 1/4 teaspoon Sea salt to taste Place the artichokes, olives, olive oil, capers,...