Fruit, vegetables and pulses

Paganica beans

Paganica beans: climbing heirlooms from the Vera basin below the Gran Sasso

Trained up willow poles as tall as two metres, these beans grow in fields watered by Gran Sasso springs just outside L'Aquila. Choose between the hazel 'pane' bean with its central eye and the ivory, rounder 'pisello', both picked by hand over several passes. Young growers, backed by a Slow Food Presidium, have brought the seed back from the older generation.

• Ready in about half an hour: for both types, a short cook is the mark of good beans
• The white is tender and buttery under a fine skin; the oil bean holds on to more aroma
• Beige shading to hazel with an eye at the centre, or ivory and a touch rounder

How to enjoy it. Boil them and finish them with nothing more than extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, or cook them the local way, as a soup with guanciale and a slice of country bread.

Production areas

Abruzzo

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