Papa Francesco in a message sent this year to the International Day of Pulses promoted by the FAO, he praised their nutritional properties, calling them "humble, strong, which do not reflect luxury", "vigorous and resistant". He was referring to legumes in general and beans in particular. Turning the clock back to 1400 we owe to another Pope, Clement VII, of the powerful House of Medici, if the beans coming from South America, had a great development in Italy.
In fact, the Pontiff made a gift of those seeds brought to the old continent by Christopher Columbus who had discovered them in Cuba, to a humanist and theologian from Belluno, Giovanni Piero Valeriano, who lived at the papal court in the years between 1400 and 1500 who returned to his lands and started the cultivation of the precious legume. Since then the bean has become one of the protagonists of the cuisine of the poorest classes, allowing the population to survive the cyclical famines and the rampant pellagra. So widespread in popular and peasant food that it ended up being immortalized in one of the best-known paintings by Annibale Caracci, "The Bean Eater".
Of the different varieties that developed in Val Belluna, one in particular is the Gialet bean, round with an intense yellow color with greenish notes, very tender because its skin is almost insubstantial after cooking, however humble it had little. He was immediately considered a fine bean and it was cultivated not so much for consumption by peasant families as to be sold to the "master" or to the better-off classes. The merchants of Padua, Verona and Bologna ne they hoarded to sell it in particular to the Vatican.
But his "quarters of nobility" were not enough to ensure him a future worthy of his history. A recurring story for all the productions that are difficult to reconcile with the market and its needs.
Today the Gialèt bean is at risk of genetic erosion as it is cultivated only by very small farmers in the villages located in the Val Belluna on the right and left of the Piave river who pass on the seed in every family. A consortium has recently been formed that brings together enthusiasts and farmers committed to bringing this variety back to the market by cultivating small plots of land according to the rules of organic farming. The goal is to increase production within a few years, which at the moment does not exceed 20 quintals per year (out of 12 tons of beans produced each year in Italy) leading all the companies in the consortium to convert to organic. About twenty small companies that practice direct sales, participate in local markets or join agricultural cooperatives join the consortium.
Fortunately for its destinies the Gialet is entered by right in the Slow Food Presidium products and this is equivalent to a life insurance.
Cultivation is still manual today: the sowing takes place in May, the seedlings grow supported by a wooden pole or by the stalks of the corn, as in the past, the harvest takes place in September.
The Gialet bean with soaking (which must last 12 hours) and subsequent cooking (for at least 40 minutes), triples its size since it has a very high imbibition capacity and high digestibility, however it largely loses its color .
As it was once considered a bean "for gentlemen", no particular peasant recipes are handed down: as the flavor is very delicate. It is excellent in barley soups or simply boiled with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a little onion.
Precisely because of its delicacy it has been chosen by some top chefs for recipes that enhance its flavour. One of them is Michael Iaconeta. Cook and pastry chef, Apulian from the Gargano who moved to Veneto in Costermano on Lake Garda where, during his long stay at the “Casa degli spiriti” an ancient roadside ruin transformed into a luxurious wedding favor with a breathtaking view of the lake, he was able to conquer a plate from the Michelin guide with a creative cuisine of both land and sea that has admirably known how to create a refined fusion point, between the flavors of Puglia, its land of origin, and those of Veneto, its land of adoption, but also between innovative cuisine and traditional cuisine. of territory.
That of Iaconeta, who, having concluded the Venetian experience, is about to embark on a new innovative project, can be defined as memory kitchen, that of his grandmother Serena's stove that fascinated him since he was a child to the point that at the age of 12 he already went to make his first experiences in a bakery, but also of all the important experiences lived and forfeited in his passages at the Hotel Adler Balance in Ortisei , at the Vescovado restaurant in Noli (1 Michelin star), at the Northcode hotel in Lancashire, England (1 Michelin star), at the Azurmendi restaurant in Bilbao (3 Michelin stars) and at St Humbertus (2 Michelin stars).
Experiences that have left their mark on his culinary culture which aims at the essentiality of reason, however declining it with the emotionality of his Mediterranean nature forged in a land, Puglia, a crossroads of food and wine cultures and a treasure trove of great flavors stratified over time. A chef who loves to focus on elements that are an expression of the territory's identity to enhance all its possible potential, as in the recipe proposed to Foodfirstonline readers with the very rare Giallèt beans
Michael Iaconeta
The recipe: Paradox… “Tortelli with oysters and yellow beans from Val Belluna”
Ingredients
For egg pasta: 500gr of weak 00 flour, 100gr of re-milled semolina, 350gr of egg yolk, 75gr of whole eggs. It is advisable to make it at least the day before, vacuum-pack it and keep it in the fridge.”
15pcs “Imperial” Red Oysters
80 g of rice oil
Salt and pepper
1 g of xsanthan
200gr of Gialet beans from Val Belluna
Celery, carrot, onion, bay leaf
Butter for creaming
300gr of rice milk
10 drops of Colatura di alici
1 shallot
Seaweed powder
Gold leaf
Oyster leaf
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
With a hand blender, start whipping the shelled oysters, taking care to recover all the vegetable water with the oil. Towards the end, add the xsanthan and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
With the beans already soaked, cook them with water, salt, bay leaf, onion, carrot, celery. Drain after cooking a little excess water and remove the odors. Let's blend in the bimby, sift and put to stabilize in the fridge.
We roll out the dough very thin, couple it with a round mold and sprinkle on a little water. With two baby bottles, in each of the respective fillings, place two small cream spikes in the center of the disc, then close as for a normal tortello.
Put the shallots and the butter in a saucepan, let it warm up and then add the rice milk and the anchovy sauce. We let it reduce by ½. Then we mount with the hand blender.
For the finish, cook the tortelli for 2 minutes in boiling water and put them in a pan with salted butter. Then we assemble with the frothed rice milk, gold leaf, 3 oyster leaves and the seaweed powder.
