This is one of my summer favorites! These Italian long beans are not to be confused with the ones you see at Asian markets. My mom grows these beans every year. They are very hard to find at a regular supermarket. It’s possible that an Italian market may have them! Those of you with southern Italian, especially Napoletano parents, may recognize this summer treat. I grew up eating this under my parent’s grapevine in “a yarda”. If you have never had the pleasure of eating this, it is a must try! This simple dish is unbelievably delicious.
Start by washing a cleaning the string beans, snip the tips and snap into sections about 6 inches long.
Bowl a large pot of water. Salt it well and blanch the string beans for a few mins. Then immediately place in ice water to keep their bright color and stop the cooking process.
Into a saute pan, add garlic, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Saute until fragrant.
In the meantime, handcrush the tomatoes. Once the garlic is golden in color, add the tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper and basil. Stir and let simmer with uncovered for about 15 min on medium. You want to reduce the sauce a bit before adding the string beans. Like my mother says, "La salsa deve essere bell' asciutt'"! (The sauce should be nice and dry!)
Add the string beans in and cook for another 10 mins on medium to allow the beans to absorb the flavors of the sauce.
Once the sauce is done, I remove the garlic cloves. But that is a personal preference!
Boil the spaghetti, add them to the pan with the sauce and combine well, coating all the spaghetti with that delicious sauce. Top with lots of Pecorino Romano and enjoy!