Glorious fresh shell beans: cranberries, pink runners, cannellini, limas, butter beans, and black-eyed peas.

Fresh Beans

Beans, beans, beans! A highlight of summer abundance and one of the glories of the garden. Green beans are a joy to grow, because then you can pick them at just the right stage. They taste best on the smaller side, but you do have to keep after them—beans tend to go from tiny to jumbo when you have your back turned.

As a customer at the market, I’m usually the guy slowly picking through an overflowing bean pile for the best specimens. But my favorite farmer consistently harvests her beans at the perfect size, and I’m happy to pay a bit more per pound to make my life that much easier.

Green beans and yellow wax beans picked at their prime are a true delight. Romanos, also known as Italian flat beans, have a wonderful texture, and their shape helps catch tasty juices and dressings.

Italian cooks gravitate toward fresh summer shelling beans, as do American Southerners. You start seeing many of them at the market in mid- to late summer, sporting their colorful pods—cranberry beans, butter beans, cannellini, black-eyed peas, and many others. These cook more quickly than dried beans, usually in only 30 minutes or so, and have the loveliest creamy texture. But when the pod is left to dry, its contents become wintertime meals and next year’s seeds (see Dried Beans & Legumes).

Height-of-Summer Bean Salad

An easy summer salad that shows off the good stuff, with a gorgeous contrast of colors, sizes, shapes, and textures. Cooked separately by type, the beans are then reunited and tossed with a bright vinaigrette. (Not at all like those cafeteria three-bean salads of yore, drenched in cider vinegar.) This salad is best at room temperature, making it great for a picnic.

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, grated or minced

Salt and pepper

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

FOR THE SALAD

1 pound fresh shelling beans, such as cranberry beans or cannellini

½ pound small green beans or haricots verts

½ pound romano beans

½ pound small yellow wax beans

1 medium red onion, cut crosswise in ¼-inch slices (don’t separate into rings)

A few sprigs of fresh marjoram or ½ teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

A handful of oil-cured black olives (optional)

To make the vinaigrette, stir together the vinegar, mustard, and garlic in a small bowl. Add a good pinch each of salt and pepper, then whisk in the olive oil. Taste for seasoning and set aside.

Shuck the fresh shelling beans and simmer in lightly salted water to cover; they should be tender in about 30 minutes. Let the beans cool in their cooking water. (These can be cooked up to 1 day ahead.)

Cook the green beans, romano beans, and wax beans separately: Simmer each type in lightly salted water for 3 to 5 minutes, until just tender. Spread them out on a tray or plates to cool to room temperature.

Put a dry cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Lay the onion slices in the skillet and let them char and soften slightly on one side, about 5 minutes. Turn and char the other side. Set aside to cool.

If using fresh marjoram sprigs, toast them in the hot skillet until they char slightly, about 1 minute; remove from the pan.

To assemble the salad, drain the shell beans (reserve the liquid for another purpose—bean broth is good in soups and pastas) and put them in a large serving bowl. Add the remaining cooked beans and the charred onions. Season with salt and pepper. Add the vinaigrette and toss well. Crumble the marjoram and sprinkle over the salad. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve, garnished with the olives if you like. Makes 4 to 6 servings

Charred red onions for the bean salad

Basic Fresh Shell Beans

This technique works well with any shell bean you like—choose whatever looks best at the market. Just barely cover the shelled beans with water, add a spoonful of olive oil, a peeled garlic clove, a rosemary sprig, and a little salt, and simmer gently. (If boiled hard, they’ll burst.) After 20 minutes, begin tasting. If the beans are still crunchy, persevere and cook until delectably creamy. Fresh shell beans generally take about 30 minutes at most. Let them cool in their broth.

Reheat to serve, adding stewed onion or tomato if you wish. For me, a splash of good olive oil and a little sea salt will do just fine.

Note: Two pounds of shelling beans in the pod will yield about 3 cups, enough for 4 servings.

Wok-Cooked Romano Beans

Romano beans have been my lifelong obsession. They may become yours too.

Romano beans, also called flat beans, are terrific when cooked over high heat in a wok, Chinese-style. If you prefer to go Italianate, season them instead with olive oil, crushed red pepper, garlic, rosemary, and sage. You want a little color on the beans, but make sure they’re still a vivid green.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 small dried hot red chile peppers

1 pound romano beans, cut into 3-inch lengths

Salt

½ teaspoon grated or minced garlic

½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

3 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal

Roughly chopped cilantro

Heat the oil in a large wok over high heat. Add the chiles and let them sizzle for a minute, then add the beans and season with salt. Toss the beans rapidly for 2 minutes, allowing them to char and brown a bit. Add the garlic and ginger and let sizzle for 10 seconds. Add about ¼ cup water to help the beans steam a bit and cook for a minute or two more, until they are firm-tender. Add the sesame oil and soy sauce and toss to coat, then add the scallions. Adjust the seasoning, transfer to a serving platter, and sprinkle with cilantro. Makes 4 servings

Butter Bean Gratin

This shell bean marvel will remind you more of France than of New England—it’s sort of an easy vegetarian cassoulet. It can be made in summer with succulent fresh shell beans, such as butter beans, or year-round with any large dried white beans, such as cannellini.

FOR THE BEANS

5 cups shucked fresh butter beans (about 4 pounds in the pod), or 3 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight in cold water to cover

1 medium onion, halved

1 medium carrot

A bay leaf

A small rosemary sprig

Salt

FOR THE BREAD CRUMBs

2 cups coarse homemade bread crumbs (from a day-old French loaf)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon grated or minced garlic

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon chopped sage

1 teaspoon chopped thyme

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary

Salt and pepper

FOR THE GRATIN

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

2 teaspoons grated or minced garlic

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste

½ teaspoon fennel seeds, coarsely crushed

1 tablespoon chopped thyme

1 tablespoon chopped sage

Put the shucked beans, onion, carrot, bay leaf, and rosemary in a large saucepan and add cold water just to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, and cook gently for 30 minutes or so, until tender. Add 1 tablespoon salt and remove from the heat. Let the beans cool in their liquid.

Alternatively, if using dried white beans, simmer slowly until tender, usually about 1½ hours. (The beans can be cooked up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated in their cooking liquid.)

Put the bread crumbs in a medium bowl. Stir together the olive oil and garlic and drizzle over the crumbs. Add the parsley, sage, thyme, and rosemary and mix well. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Season generously with salt and black pepper, then add the garlic, crushed red pepper, and fennel seeds and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid. Add the beans to the onion mixture and stir in the thyme and sage. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Transfer the beans to a shallow earthenware baking dish, at least 9 by 13 inches. Pour about 2 cups of the bean cooking liquid over the beans; there should be about an inch of liquid in the baking dish.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs evenly over the beans and cover the dish with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the beans are bubbling in the center and the bread crumbs are golden brown, about 30 minutes more. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. (The gratin can be baked several hours ahead and reheated to serve.) Makes 6 to 8 servings

Fresh cranberry beans (borlotti) in their brilliant crimson pods.

Shell Bean and Albacore Salad

Slow-cooked albacore tuna with shell beans.

In kitchens all around the Mediterranean, room-temperature salads of beans and tuna are common, often made with home-canned tuna and cooked dried white beans. For summer meals, I like to make this version with fresh shelling beans and a flavorful confit of albacore tuna cooked gently in olive oil. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program recommends albacore as a sustainable choice.

FOR THE ALBACORE

1 pound fresh albacore steaks

Salt and pepper

½ teaspoon fennel seeds, coarsely ground in a mortar

A pinch of crushed red pepper

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

A small rosemary sprig

About ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

FOR THE BEAN SALAD

1 cup finely diced mixed red and yellow bell peppers

½ cup finely diced sweet white or red onion

Pinch of crushed red pepper

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 small garlic clove, smashed to a paste with a little salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

3 cups cooked fresh shell beans (see Basic Fresh Shell Beans)

1 tablespoon chopped basil, plus a few whole leaves for garnish

A handful of halved cherry tomatoes (optional)

4 hard-cooked eggs (see How to Boil an Egg), halved (optional)

Aïoli for serving (optional)

To make the albacore, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the albacore into 1-inch-thick slices and put them in a small baking dish in one layer. Season generously with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle the fennel seeds and red pepper over the fish. Add the garlic and rosemary to the baking dish. Add olive oil to a depth of 1 inch, barely covering the fish.

Cover the dish and place in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the slices over, cover, and return to the oven for another 5 minutes. The albacore should be just cooked; take care not to overcook it. Let the fish cool in its dish, uncovered. (The fish can be stored in its cooking liquid in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature to serve.)

To make the salad, toss the bell peppers, onion, crushed red pepper, vinegar, garlic, and olive oil with a little salt in a large serving bowl. Add the shell beans, draining them well first, and season lightly with salt and black pepper. Add the chopped basil and toss gently to combine, taking care not to smash the beans. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Transfer to a serving platter.

Remove the albacore from the oil, flake it into large pieces, and arrange over the bean salad. Garnish with the basil leaves. Serve surrounded with the halved cherry tomatoes and hard-cooked eggs if you like. A dab or two of aïoli would be welcome too. Makes 4 to 6 servings