At the farm, produce is rather typical: zucchini and squash, corn, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, okra, all kinds of peppers, half-runner and stringless beans, cucumbers, cabbage. One of the owner’s sisters-in-law grows some off-the-beaten path veggies at her home garden and brings them to the farm to sell. A new one this year is the Chinese red noodle bean.
The Chinese red noodle bean is a unique variety that’s gaining popularity because it’s easy to cook with and grow and has such an unusual appearance.
This bean is exactly what it sounds like: imagine a string bean, but much longer and with a striking deep red or burgundy color. The bean pods can grow to be 16 to 22 inches long and they contain medium-sized red beans. Red noodle beans are sweet when eaten whole and have a very similar flavor to green beans. Some people say that the actual beans themselves have a nuttier taste and will take on other flavors well.
Well, I just had to try these beans. They look like a very thick pasta noodle and I had a bunch of this and that left over in the veggie bin so why not make a tomato based primavera sauce with all those remnant veggies. I used a few canned tomatoes and their juice for a saucy sauce then added Roma tomatoes, zucchini, corn, onion, shishito peppers, fresh basil, anchovy paste (which gave an amazing depth of flavor), and Parmesan cheese.
That’s what I love about summer veggies: you can throw a mish mash together and make something pretty darn good.
Well I never,
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