Fruit, vegetables and pulses

Pappaluni beans

Pappaluni beans: climbing Aspromonte runners with seeds no two alike

On the slopes of Aspromonte, between 400 and 1,200 metres, the villages above the Gioia Tauro plain have grown these climbing beans for generations, training them more than four metres up chestnut poles. A new generation of young farmers is bringing them back, and in 2026 they joined the Slow Food Presidia. Harvest runs from August to October.

• The coloured type has marbled skins, green to violet to ochre, so every seed looks different
• Coloured beans taste full and rustic; white ones are gentler and suit almost any dish
• A local Phaseolus coccineus, grown by hand in the Aspromonte National Park

How to enjoy it. Use the coloured beans for rustic soups and the mountain pasta e fagioli of Aspromonte, loaded with broccoli, potato, pork rind and fresh chilli; keep the white ones for simple sides and light broths.

Production areas

Calabria

Season

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