Levantine · Side
Loubieh bi Zeit
- Easy
- 25 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with a briny, maritime salinity, acid holding everything up to the light, finishing long and savory.
Ingredients
- 800 g flat romano green beans, topped and tailed
- 150 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 300 g onions, sliced
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced
- 400 g ripe tomatoes, grated
- 30 g tomato paste
- 8 g fine salt
- 2 g black pepper
- 100 ml water
- 1 lemon
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Sweat the onions in the olive oil over low heat until soft and just colouring at the edges, then add the garlic and cook one minute more, until it smells sweet rather than raw.
- Add the beans and turn them in the oil for about 8 minutes, until they lose their squeak and the raw green dulls to olive. 8 min
- Only now stir in the grated tomato, the paste, the salt, pepper and water, and simmer uncovered until the beans slump when lifted on a spoon and the oil pools clear and red at the edge of the pan, 25 to 35 minutes. 35 min
- Take off the heat, sharpen with lemon to taste, and let it come down to room temperature before serving; fridge cold flattens both the oil and the tomato.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Chianti Classico or Barbera d’Alba
- Also Right
- Vermentino for the lighter plates
- From the Taps
- Italian pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- San Pellegrino Sanbittèr
Tomato’s acid demands equal acid: Italian reds evolved beside the sauce, and the regional pairing is the safest law in wine.
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