Rattlesnake Beans with Olive Tapenade

Rattlesnake beans are an heirloom variety with a "mottled" skin of purple and green that resembles the marking of their namesake. It soon became apparent, however, that this type of bean was available down south, not up here in NYC. Reader, I kid you not, I was about to throw in the towel and just make this recipe with regular beans and sacrifice authenticity, when I walked into the tiny organic store on the corner from my apartment to buy vanilla extract (see yesterday's recipe) and THERE in a big beautiful cardboard box, in all their purple mottled glory were my beans.

I'm not kidding; I'd been hunting for these little things in every farmers' market in the city all July. I literally couldn't believe my eyes.

I bought a pound and a half. Just look at these beauties:

So tonight! I can make the recipe. However, all my nuttiness aside, you can easily substitute either regular green beans or pole beans for this recipe. Indeed, once cooked, rattlesnake beans lose the mottled appearance, so by all means don't waste all your energy like I did.

Tracking down the beans was tough, the recipe itself is simple: bring 2 quarts (8 cups) water and one teaspoon salt to a boil in a large saucepan. Add one and a half pounds trimmed rattlesnake (or green) beans, cut into one-inch pieces. Rattlesnake beans are tougher and need to cook for about 25 minutes. Regular beans only need about 8. Cook accordingly and drain. Transfer to a large bowl.

In a food processor, combine 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, one teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, one and a half teaspoons grated lemon rind, one and a half teaspoons lemon juice, one and a half teaspoons olive oil, one chopped garlic clove and one medium shallot, quartered. Pulse until finely chopped (you will probably need to scrape down the sides of the food processor a couple of times with a spatula).

Toss the beans with the tapenade. The yield for this recipe is 6 servings, of 3/4 cup and 70 calories each.

Cost:
rattlesnake beans $6.24
kalamata olives $6.99
rosemary $1.99
lemon $0.79
shallot $0.20