Ragoût d’haricots tarbais

For bean connoisseurs, haricots from Tarbes, where I was born, are the Holy Grail of beans – so much so that they’ve earned the coveted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status from the European Union, a status that protects both their terroir and how they are grown.

The bean arrived in the south-west at the same time as maïs (sweetcorn) and the two have since been inextricably linked. The bean was in fact originally known as the ‘haricot maïs’ as the two were grown together – o