Reprinted from Salt to Taste (Rodale Books, 2009) by Marco Canora
them in interesting ways. If you’re Italian
and cook in an Italian way, you stay with the
beans you know. I think the opportunity for
all of us is there are hundreds of varieties
of beans. There is more opportunity to be
creative with beans in a way that we aren’t
yet. Look beyond traditional dishes. Look at
it as a center-of-the plate proposition rather
than a side dish.”
Marco Canora of Hearth purchases
heirloom beans directly from a grower for
his pasta e fagioli.
Paone doesn’t pair beans with pork
alone; he often uses them in seafood
dishes, including squid and tuna. He picks
cranberry beans to make a purée that’s
plated under a fish fillet, or serves them
as a refreshing appetizer by mixing giant
white beans (the exact kind varies with
availability) with fresh parsley, Meyer
lemon and dried tuna roe.
cooking technique matters, too. Cooking
beans in the oven after a prolonged soak
means more-equal results.
He also leans toward heirlooms over old
standards such as straight black beans or
kidney beans, because they are less common
and far more interesting. “Nine times out
of 10, the nuances in beans are lost on the
public, but on us, and the people who do
notice—that’s why we get them,” Paone says.
“You get heat from all sides, especially
when you’re preparing large quantities. In a
pot, it’s hotter on the bottom and you have
to stir frequently,” Canora says. “Some are
cooked perfectly and some are hard. Done
with a generous amount of water in the
oven, they tend to cook more evenly.”
In the end, he says what’s most important
is starting with the right bean.
Be more creative, Ash urges. He includes
himself in the challenge. He’s selected the
gigandes bean as his own, and is using it in
as many ways as he can. “It’s a big, beautiful
white bean. When it cooks, it can be an inch
across. I like to use it in any dish that might
have used a piece of fish, and I use the
bean, instead. For example, it becomes my
scallop—my much-less-expensive ingredient
to replace an expensive protein,” he says.
They are more expensive than their more
common cousins, often double the price,
but keep that pricing in perspective, say
believers. Even an expensive bean is cheap
in the realm of coveted kitchen ingredients.
Mansfield, Mass.-based freelance writer
Clare Leschin-Hoar’s work has appeared in
The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe
and The Christian Science Monitor, among
other publications.
MAIL-ORDER
BEAN SOURCES
COOK RIGHT
Chef Marco Canora of Hearth in New York
says he’s long been a bean fanatic, and
that they’re an integral part of the Tuscan-based cuisine he’s known for. But for years,
he struggled with uneven results yielded
by standard beans. “I was never happy with
them. They’d always break. I tried every which
way to keep them beautiful and whole, but
the skins would always break,” says Canora.
Rancho Gordo
www.ranchogordo.com
(707) 259-1935
Yellow-eye bean is a favorite of Anthony
Paone, chef at Sea Salt in Berkeley, Calif. He
likes the way it holds it shape. It’s not too big
or too small. “I’ll roast a whole pig, and the
leftover crispy salty parts get thrown into the
beans and served with herbs from our garden
and crème fraîche,” he says. “Using those
heirloom beans allows us to do something
like that. It can stand on its own. We wouldn’t
do that with a run-of-the-mill bean.”
Baer’s Best Beans
(978) 239-5330
cbaer14@verizon.net
Purcell Mountain Farms
www.purcellmountainfarms.com
(208) 267-0627
Switching to heirlooms purchased directly
from a grower, he has found greater
success. While he stays with the classics—
using beans in dishes such as pasta e
fagioli, or applying a light smoke to them
to add complexity—he understands that
Zürsun Idaho Heirloom Beans
www.zursunbeans.com
(208) 735-1044
Phipps Ranch
www.phippscountry.com
(650) 879-1032
