fagiolini in padella

We love green beans but it seems like the only way we get to eat them is the Armenian way with tomato sauce made by the mother-in-law. Which is great, but can't we do something interesting ourselves? Supermarkets make it easy to use them these days with already washed and trimmed beans, but some imagination is required to do more than serve them boiled or steamed with olive oil and almond slivers, the widespread recipe they are subject to on this side of the Atlantic.

"In padella" meaning "in the pan" is an Italian approach to spicing up otherwise boring leafy greens, usually (boring, that is). After appropriately cooking the greens, one sautes them in "aglio olio e pepperoncino", namely garlic and good olive oil and then some (hot) red pepper flakes. Of course this green bean dish (we aimed for 3 eaters including Isgouhi) needs some color so bob diced up 4 baby red and orange sweet peppers to saute with a shallot in olive oil, then pressed 2 large garlic cloves to add with the green beans, and finally some pine nuts which are the Italian stand-in for the more traditional almond slivers. The end result is visually attractive, as well as delicious to actually eat.

[Confession: ms ani did most of the hands-on work here after bob trimmed the ends of the not quite recipe ready beans and readied the peppers and garlic.]

ingredients

enough green beans or French cut green beans for your target dining number, steamed until still "toothy"

an appropriate number of shallots, chopped

enough small sweet red and orange peppers, chopped finely

enough garlic, pressed

red pepper flakes to taste

generous sprinkling of pine nuts

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

instructions

1. Skin and chop the shallot(s).
2. Clean the small peppers, removing the seeds, and chop.
3. Heat olive oil in the nonstick pan and toss in the shallot(s) and peppers and soften.
4. Stir in the red pepper flakes and pressed garlic, salt and pepper to taste, briefly saute.
5. Stir in the pine nuts and cook briefly.
6. Serve.

notes

1. For Italian cooking terms see this glossary. "In padella" is short for "repassati in padella", namely "passed again in the pan", namely cooked again in a pan.
2. This recipe is pretty vague, no? No magic numbers, here, just do what feels good.
3. Illustrations available.