Those lima beans

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, November 10, 2009—

SINCE WE HAVE THEM so often these days, I thought I'd let you see exactly what these delicious lima beans look like. We get two different kinds from Nancy Skall's Middleton Gardens; last Saturday they were the only reason we drove in to the farm market in Healdsburg — well, also to show it off to out-of-town guests.
Nancy has at least two kinds of limas these days, the little flat green ones you saw yesterday, delicately flavored and green as springtime, and these bigger ones:

which Lindsey patiently shells while we watch the news. These are quite bigger and turn very dark when cooked:

darker, in fact, than they look in this photo. They're very meaty, with a deep flavor, a little reminiscent of chocolate, of all things, and maybe even calf's liver. After them we had penne in tomato sauce, made with fresh Roma tomatoes also from the market, and of course a green salad.

Cheap Pinot grigio; Nero d'Avola