Mangiamo all'italiano

Eastside Road, January 16, 2011—

SUNDAY EVENING: let's have something especially tasty. Lindsey found a jar of "Caviar d'Aubergine aux Pignons" we bought last October at the Salone del Gusto. Made by Le Clos de Laure, it contains eggplant, white onions, anchovies, capers, pine nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and it was very tasty as a first course, spread on garlic-rubbed toast and accompanied by raw fennel. Alas, we bought only a small jar: maybe we'll have to figure out how to make our own this summer.

Afterward, a salad of Corona beans, large flat white Lima-like beans which are named, according to Amazon.com, "after the luminescent halo of light that appears around the moon and sometimes the sun. The word crown is derived from the word corona, making the Corona bean the king of beans." It's only advertising, of course, but the beans are nearly as poetic as the copy, with the texture of chestnuts, a grassy sweetness to the flavor, and lots of meat.

Lindsey soaks them overnight or longer, then cooks them al dente, then, after cooling them, tosses them with olive oil, salt, chopped fennel-leaves if she has some, and chopped raw white onion. It is one of the Hundred Plates.

Green salad, of course.

Cheap Pinot grigio