beans

Fassolia Piaz: Greek bean salad for summer

Fassolia Piaz: Greek bean salad for summer

Back in March, when no one knew what the pandemic food supply chain would be like, we reflexively purchased bags of dried beans. They were cheap, shelf-stable supplies that could guarantee a source of quality protein if we were suddenly faced with food insecurity. In hindsight, we overreacted. On the bright side, we have a lot of beans on hand to make summer salads. Fassolia piaz is the Greek variant. In its simplest form, boiled beans are mixed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil. We like it expanded a bit to include chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, and skewers of fresh tuna cooked over hardwood charcoal. That makes it the Greek cousin to Salade Niçoise. You could add Kalamata olives or even sliced hard-boiled...Read More
Pasta fazool, for the immigrants we have all become

Pasta fazool, for the immigrants we have all become

We've never eaten pasta e fagioli in Italy. We've never even seen it on a menu there, though a reliable source (Michele Sciocolone) tells us it is Neapolitan. (That's why we posted the Neapolitan chef and food vendor miniatures above. They're masked for Carnavale and sold on the same street as Christmas creche figures.) The dish—‶pasta fazool″ in the Neapolitan dialect—has an Italian-flavored familiarity that marks it as real comfort food. Turns out that it's known mainly in Italian-American cuisine. It's from that branch of cooking born when immigrants made do with canned and dried commodities rather than the fresh ingredients they knew in the old country. We're all immigrants now to the world of social distancing and staying indoors. We're making do with canned...Read More