Seasonal local food recipe No.290 – French beans with pepper and tomatoes
This classic recipe is based on the late Marcella Hazan‘s recipe for French beans with yellow peppers, tomatoes and chilli pepper. We make it with whatever colour pepper we have to hand and sometimes we include the chilli pepper and sometimes we don’t! You can also use thinly sliced runner beans.
Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
450g French beans
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 pepper, cut into strips
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
170g tomatoes (tinned or fresh)
chopped hot red chilli pepper (optional)
Method
Trim the beans, soak them in cold water, drain and set aside. Put the oil in a pan on medium heat and gently cook the onion until translucent. Add the pepper and roughly chopped tomatoes, stir well and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.
Add the chilli pepper (if using) and the beans, turn them over 2 or 3 times to coat them well, add 6 tbsp. of water or less if you are using fresh tomatoes and they are watery.
Cover and cook at a steady simmer until tender, 20-30 minutes depending on the youth and freshness of the beans. Add more water as needed. When the beans are done, if the pan juices are watery, uncover, turn the heat up and rapidly boil them down. Season with salt and chilli pepper to taste.
