Corona beans

Eastside Road, October 3, 2012—

THESE MAY BE the last of the Corona beans for a while. We used to buy them dry in big plastic sacks, five pounds or so. (Not quite; they were imported from Italy and sold by metric measurements — perhaps two-kg packages; I'm not sure.)

Alas our friend retired from the import business, succumbing to a buyout offer no sane man would long resist. We have a couple of liters of olive oil left, half a dozen cans of tuna, probably some tapenade and such squirreled away out in the mud room or in various corners of the pantry, see below.

The beans are big, bigger than the end joint of my thumb, and it's a good-sized thumb. Meaty. Lindsey soaks them for a few hours, then cooks them up with, I'm guessing here, a bit of crushed garlic and salt. When they're tender she drains them and tosses them with good olive oil, sage or marjoram, more garlic and salt as needed. On a night like this they're the entire supper, followed of course by the green salad and later a couple of figs and maybe an apple.

Tempranillo Barrica, Albero, 2009: full and forthcoming

a corner of the pantry