Stewed romano beans with tomatoes
Ingredients:
- 1 lb ripe tomatoes
- a few sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 1/5 lb. Italian flat beans, a.k.a., romano beans
- 4 oz. fresh red onion, either the round or the torpedo kind, thinly sliced (with a mandoline or other tool — I use the “thin” side of my mandoline)
- 2 oz. shallot, thinly sliced (same as for onion)
- olive oil
- 1/2 cup (or as needed) homemade light chicken stock or vegetable broth
- sea salt and freshly milled black pepper, to taste
To make strained roasted tomatoes, cut tomatoes in half crosswise, distribute them, cut side up, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat, spray olive oil and sprinkle thyme leaves on them.
Roast the tomatoes for 70 minutes at 350 F. Once cooled a bit, ran the tomatoes through a food mill. Make sure you squeeze out all the pulp, so that only dry skins and seeds are left behind.
Snap off the stem end from each bean, then slice beans into roughly 2-inch pieces. Warm up some olive oil in a deep sauté pan, then add onion and shallot. Stir to coat, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add strained roasted tomatoes and stir. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Add beans and 1/4 cup of liquid of choice. Bring to a lively simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes. Stir several times and add more liquid as needed to keep the beans moist.
When the beans are cooked (tender, but not mushy), remove from the heat, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, give a final good stir, then serve.