Sautéed Beans With Spicy Sun-Dried Tomatoes

One of my favorite vegetables of every summer season are beans, whether they be fresh shelling beans, regular every day green or yellow string beans, or these big fat, tender Romano beans. On our recent trip to the outdoor market, one of my favorite vendors had a huge case of lovely fresh Romano beans and I just couldn’t resist buying a bag full. I like to first blanch my beans until they are tender crisp, and then sauté them together with seasoned oil and spices.

We had a jar of homemade sun-dried tomatoes from Campagna that I decided to put to good use to flavor these beans and also added some hot pepper to keep my husband happy. The tomatoes had a few odd capers mixed into the jar for flavoring, and I added an additional tablespoon of salted capers that I first rinsed off well. I also added three cloves of garlic thinly sliced, two finely chopped red hot peppers, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt and cracked black pepper. We love beans prepared this way as a side dish, or even for lunch the following day as the simple preparation really allows the natural flavor of the beans to shine.

• Tomatoes are rich in Lycopene, vitamin C, potassium, iron, and fiber.
• Olive oil is a heart healthy mono-unsaturated oil rich in antioxidants.
• Green beans contain excellent levels of vitamin A, and many health promoting flavonoid poly phenolic antioxidants such as lutein, zeaxanthin and ß-carotene in good amounts. Beans are also a good source of dietary fiber, vitamins B-6, B-12, C, thiamine and folate.