These fresh cranberry beans come in cream colored pods, beautifully streaked with magenta. The pods cannot be eaten, but inside their shells you'll find the edible beans speckled with the same striking coloring. In Europe, this bean is known as borlotti, the backbone of Italian classics like pasta e fagioli.
Fresh shelling beans are the brief late-summer-into-fall stage between a fresh bean and a dried one, and they cook like it: no soaking, just 20 to 25 minutes of simmering until creamy, a fraction of what dried beans demand. Shell them first. The speckles fade to a rosy tan in the pot. Their flavor is mild, nutty, and faintly sweet, with a buttery texture. Simmer them with garlic, sage, and olive oil, fold them into soups and salads, or mash them onto toast. They pair especially well with sage, garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil.
