Savory Green Beans

What's up with me and green beans?  A year ago I wouldn't have even thought to serve them since Clint has always hated them.  But on a whim I cooked up some fresh ones last summer and now it seems to be the vegetable of choice for dinner at our house.  This was a nice dish served on Easter.  The family loved it.

Savory Green Beans

Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
3 oz coarsely chopped pancetta
1 shallot, thinly sliced
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Add the green beans and boil 3 - 4 minutes until just tender.  Drain beans and immediately plunge into ice water.  Allow to sit in ice water until cold, then drain well, and set aside.

Cook pancetta in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crispy, then set aside.  Reduce heat to medium, stir shallots in the pancetta fat, and cook gently until the shallots have turned dark golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Place pancetta and green beans in skillet; toss and cook until warmed through, about 2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

In my test kitchen:

I must admit that I didn't really follow the directions about the ice water.  I recently ate at the Wild Rose and their green beans were amazing.  The insides tasted great and the outside had a slight crunch but not because it was underdone.  I suspect an ice water bath has something to do with that.  So I'll have to try again.  Nevertheless, this is still good if you immediately remove the green beans and run them under cold water.  (Which is what I did because I was in a rush.)  My shallots cooked up much faster than 10 minutes so keep an eye on those little things!  And I used bacon instead of pancetta due to cost.  My only suggestion is to toss the bacon in right at the end.  Otherwise your once crunchy bacon will soften up when warmed with the green beans.

~Happy Cooking!