For The Best, Most Flavorful Green Beans, Make Them Italian Style

If you only associate green beans with traditional green bean casserole, you should get to know the flavorsome Italian approach to cooking these slender green pods. In Italy, green beans are often simmered slowly in tomato sauce in a recipe called "fagiolini in umido," which gives them a rich, garlicky savor that feels more like a substantial meal than an afterthought side dish.

For me, this dish is incredibly personal. I grew up in Italy, and green beans cooked this way are one of my family's go-to recipes — whenever my mom picked up a bag of green beans at the market, I knew this exquisite bean braise would be on the menu. And the technique to make them is actually so simple. Fresh green beans are cooked directly in "sugo al pomodoro" (tomato sauce) — something as simple as crushed tomatoes with garlic, sauteed onions, and olive oil — until tender. It's a preparation typically associated with Tuscany and Naples, but across Italy, many vegetables, from eggplant to bell peppers, are cooked this way, too (slowly with tomatoes and olive oil). Instead of ending up crunchy, they become soft and tender, having soaked up all the flavors of the sauce until they are almost part of the sauce themselves.

Like many of Italy's best dishes, fagiolini in umido is very simple, but small details will make or break how it ends up tasting. And maybe the most important part of it all is the tomato sauce base. If you really don't want to make your own, there are plenty of popular store-bought marinara sauces to choose from, but honestly, a quick homemade version will create the best flavors here. To make sugo al pomodoro – one of Italy's classic pasta sauces for a reason — fry off some onion, a generous amount of garlic and then throw in some crushed tomatoes and tomato puree before letting it all simmer to let the flavours marinate. When adding the beans, make sure to give them at least five minutes to both cook through and absorb the flavors.

The softened beans will fortify the tomato sauce, giving it a stew-like robustness. Once it's ready, serve the dish warm with some crusty bread to mop up the sauce. Or it can be served as a "contorno" alongside meat and fish as part of a bigger meal. Either way, once you make green beans like this, you might never go back.