Salads with Beans

Insalate con i Legumi

Appears in

Published 1997

About

Beans and other legumes add weight to a salad and turn it into a more substantial course. Although it can be served precisely as you would any simple raw vegetable salad, it can be—along with good cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and a glass of young, fruity red wine—a satisfying little meal on its own.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of cooking the beans until they are very tender. Al dente beans are an abomination perpetrated by people who measure taste solely by the criterion of crunch. You can grind flour from uncooked beans, but we don’t want flour; we want cream. When cooked thoroughly, the floury substance becomes creamy, it tastes sweet, and part of it leaves the bean to envelop the other ingredients.