the.com/cranberry bean
A bean dressed for a crime scene that surrenders all its color the moment you cook it.
means A medium-sized speckled bean, cream-colored with red or maroon streaks, popular in Italian cooking (where it's called borlotto), that turns a uniform pinkish-brown when cooked.
from The 'cranberry' here is about looks, not taste — the mottled red-and-cream pods and beans reminded North American growers of cranberries, which were already a familiar New World fruit (the name 'cranberry' itself comes from 'crane berry,' possibly because the plant's drooping flower was thought to resemble a crane's head and neck). The bean itself is a variety of the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, domesticated in the Americas thousands of years ago and carried to Europe after Columbus, where Italians embraced it as the borlotto.
- identity crisis
- Also called borlotti, Roman bean, and shell bean
- color thief
- Magenta speckles fade to dull tan when boiled
- italian staple
- Backbone of pasta e fagioli for centuries
- creamy interior
- Chestnut-like texture, no soaking-soup mush required
borlotti bean — same species as cranberry bean, primary name used in italy for the red-speckled variety in risotto and pasta e fagioli