Comments on: A Gigante Bowl of Comfort

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:19:14 +0000

I love you. I found what must be the same salad on the antipasto bar at our local Fred Meyer, and was sure I could never find the beans or replicate that heavenly salad….but your description nails it right on the head! Thank you so much!!

By: Deanna

Deanna — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:36:42 +0000

Thanks so much! I also just discovered the Whole Foods Gigante Bean Salad. It’s so good that I had to google around about them. Can’t wait to get beans from Purcell Mountain Farms, another great tip!

By: Tamara

Tamara — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:43:15 +0000

Thanks for the great idea! I happened upon a bag of corona beans today so I bought them and will try them tonight!

By: Solange Rebecca Echeverria

Solange Rebecca Echeverria — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:19:37 +0000

Italian Corona Beans work just as well-as a matter of fact, hard to tell the difference! Available ironically @ Whole Foods!

By: Caffettiera

Caffettiera — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:41:10 +0000

My mother always adds a fresh tomato or two to borlotti beans, who actually don’t have a tough skin. She always soaks beans, even though my grandmother often uses something like your quick soaking trick, and the tomato as well. I am quite positive that you can cook fresh beans in tomato sauce because I remember it as a typical summer dish. I don’t use fresh tomatoes that much because the ones available here won’t actually lend any flavour, sadly. So, who knows? Maybe you have to rehydrate the beans before letting them touch the acid…

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:55:52 +0000

Oh, the controversy! So, the salt thing appears to ve polarizing. Some sources warn you to stay away from adding it to the cooking water for the same reason as acid–because it will harden the bean. Other sources claim that this is a huge myth and that salting the water actually flavors the beans, has no effect on toughness, and is preferable. Honestly, I don’t know who is right. The best I can come up with is: if you live somewhere that doesn’t have hard water, a little salt in the cooking water probably won’t hurt. But when a timely dinner is at stake, I tend to play it safe and avoid salting the water just in case.

The acid thing is more interesting to me. A tomato in the cooking water, you say?? Fascinating! Tomato is absolutely acid… does your family do this will all bean varieties, or just certain ones? After a long soak or not? All I know is that the one time I tried to make a chili in my slow cooker and I tossed in dry (unsoaked) lima beans along with some canned tomatoes, the lima beans never softened. Ever. Even after, like, 8 hours. So I learned my lesson and keep the beans away from acid until they’ve been properly tenderized.

(PS: your blog’s photography is beautiful!)