The most commonly and widely consumed types of bean originated in tropical and subtropical America. They were introduced into Europe in the 16th century under the name Phaseolus vulgaris. The ancient Greeks and Romans were acquainted with a phaseolus but it belonged to a different species, which came from Africa and whose scientific name is Vigna sinensis. It is still consumed and is known in Italy as the fagiolo dall’occhio or “bean with an eye,” because of a black streak circling the hilum or point of attachment to the pod. The legume is known as the black-eyed pea or cowpea in the United States.

Numerous varieties of beans are cultivated today, since the plant constantly produces genetic variations, which makes it eminently suited to crossbreeding. The bean’s chemical composition is extremely complex and is closer to that of meat than of other plants. In addition to possessing a great deal of protein, it is rich in carbohydrates and mineral salts, while it is almost entirely lacking in fat.

From a dietary standpoint, a distinction must be made between the bean harvested when its pod is still tender and immature and the bean gathered when it is completely ripe. In the first case, it is a mangetout, in that all of it is eaten. It is usually called cornetto or fagiolino in Italian and green or French bean in English. In the second case, the bean must be shelled and can then be consumed fresh or dried.

Beans were introduced into Europe at the beginning of the 16th century and they were rather quickly diffused in Italy.

the first to provide a scientific description of the plant, in 1542, were the botanists Leonhart Fuchs and Hieronymus Bock.

The first Italian expert to provide information about the bean was Sienese botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli, who observed that, “when eaten, they bloat the stomach but they generate virile seed and encourage sexual intercourse, and even more so if they are eaten with long pepper, sugar and galingale.”


From a culinary standpoint, he suggested that they should be “cooked in cow’s milk until they split open. They do not create much disturbance to the stomach when they are eaten with mustard greens and cardoons,” he added.

An extensive account of the bean was provided by Lodovico Castelvetro (1505-1574), who first described the botanical and gastronomic aspects of the legume, then added a bit of information about an amusing, non-culinary use to which the plant was put.

“I have dealt fully with fresh and dried favas. Now I must deal with the bean, a fruit or legume very similar to them in flavor. We have two species of it and neither do we eat raw. The less common one is bigger and is entirely white or marked with red and black streaks. The other species is smaller and all white, with a black eye on the belly.

The first is known as the turcheschi and it grows quite tall. Therefore, whoever does not plant them close to hedges but wants to have much fruit should plant them next to dried branches to which they can attach themselves and grow tall.

Because the plant bears fine green leaves, the ladies in Italy and especially those of Venice, who like to tarry in the shade amid the greenery and who, even more, enjoy watching passers-by from their windows without being seen by them, are accustomed to putting on the window sills of their bedrooms wooden flowerboxes as long as the windows are wide and a span in breadth and fill them with excellent soil.


In them, they plant 10 or 12 of these beans during the waxing moon of February or March or April. Then, using white sticks, they form a sort of grate to which the plants can cling so that the whole window is well shaded.

Gardeners who cultivate the bean make hedges of bamboo or the white stalks of the hemp plant, next to which they plant this legume. When they grow up, they make the garden shadier and produce a bigger crop of beans for harvesting. The pods of this legume, when they are green and tender and when they have reached a perfect size, are cooked whole and are flavored like hops, as I’ve already said. They are very good. Good soups are made from dried beans and they should be cooked in excellent broth.

The others, which we call casalenghi (home-made) or nostrani (native), are sown by the bushel in fields after the wheat has been harvested. They grow very high off the ground but they must be kept studiously free of all other plants. Of those, we also eat the green and tender pods in salads, while green. Shelled and dried beans are used in making non-meat soups, especially when we are expecting the peasants to bring in the harvest.

When we give them a bowl of these legumes along with a piece of cheese, made without the butter being skimmed off and sold in the market, they hold that they are being well treated.


We cook them then in the following manner: Pick out the broken beans and pebbles that you sometimes find and wash the beans in tepid water. Put them in water in a clean pot and set it over the fire, which should not be violent. When they are half-cooked, remove the water and replace it with other tepid water, adding salt, enough oil and pepper, which is its true condiment, and it is then flavored for being consumed as a soup.

However, others cook beans along with chestnuts that have been dried and removed from their shells so that they will not burst. Being then cooked without their condiment, they are pounded very well in the mortar and thinned a bit with their own water before being passed through a sieve. And to the purée created, honey should be added and a good quantity of strong spices.

The purée is then used to make tarts and tortelli [large ravioli].

The tarts are cooked in the oven or on tart pans of tinned copper with their covers. The tortelli are fried in oil and are eaten with nothing else or with a bit of honey over them.

Almost two centuries later, in 1781, Vincenzo Corrado wrote that “beans are of various colors and shapes,” and added with a touch of humor, “if you want to know whether beans make tasty food, you should ask the people of Florence, since more than all others they make great use of them at all times and particularly the dried white types.”


Beans are no less popular today, which is confirmed by the existence of numerous regional preparations involving the legumes. Many of those dishes go back two centuries and are still popular.

In Piedmont, for example, beans figure in the paniscia novarese (rice with salame, beans and various vegetables), the panissa vercellese (beans and rice with pork), the fagiolata con le cotiche (beans with pork rind), the tofeja canavesana (a rich baked dish of beans, pork and vegetables) and the tajarin e fasoi (noodles with beans), which is eaten in a special way in the Monferrato—it’s known as the combinà: with one normal portion being eaten first and then a second ration after a goblet of Barbera red wine has been incorporated in the mixture. The people of Lombardy have ris rustì (rice, beans, Parmesan, fatty bacon, broth and red wine), rice with Borlotti beans and the classic beans with pork rind. Pasta and beans are prepared in various styles in the Veneto and there is fagioli sofegai (beans with peverada sauce in guinea hen or chicken broth).

No less traditional are the jota (bean, kraut, pork and cornmeal soup) of Trieste and the fagioli col muset (beans and fresh pork sausage) of Friuli.

Ligurians enjoy a minestra di magro (a non-meat bean soup), while the Emilians dote on fagioli maritati (a bean, tomato and cheese soup), pisarei e fasò (pasta with beans and tomato sauce) and cazzagai (beans cooked with tomatoes and served with polenta).

The Tuscans, as Corrado remarked, are extremely fond of beans.


Among their dishes are bordatino livornese (a soup of puréed beans, black cabbage and other vegetables thickened with cornmeal), beans infarinata (similar to the bordatino), bean soup, rice with beans, baked beans, beans cooked in fiasco (the round-bottomed, straw-wrapped wine bottle), all’uccelletto (beans cooked with tomato) and beans in the Florentine style, as well as many others.

Latium has its pasta and beans but also its fagioli al corallo (beans stewed with tomato), boiled beans and beans with pork rind. In Campania, beans are often combined with pasta or prepared alla maruzzara (fresh beans cooked with tomatoes and poured over bread). Basilicata is noted for its legane e fagioli (wide noodles and beans), while Sardinia features fagioli alla gallurese (beans cooked with tomato concentrate, wild fennel and black cabbage).

 

THE FIRST ITALIAN RECIPES

 

Vincenzo Corrado was, again, the first to provide Italian recipes for beans, in his Il Cuoco Galante. His recipes are still entirely valid.

 

Fagioli in Pottaggio da Grasso, Vincenzo Corrado, 1781:

Beans, whether large and white or small cowpeas, are cooked in fresh water, which should be changed after they have boiled for a time.

The dish is finished with salt, pepper, slices of ham, chopped celery, parsley, whole hot peppers and meat sauce. When the dish has cooked, remove the peppers and serve.

Fagioli in Pottagio da Magro, Vincenzo Corrado, 1781:

Boil the beans in water and season them with salt, pepper and spring onions, parsley, chard, borage, garlic and basil, all chopped, and stewed in oil. Serve as soon as the beans are cooked.

Fagioli alla Fiorentina, Vincenzo Corrado, 1781:

Cook the beans in salted water and, when they are done, serve them with anchovies stewed in oil and flavored with pepper and lemon juice.