Made in Italy: Food and Stories. Giorgio Locatelli

       Insalata di fagiolini gialli, patate e tartufo Yellow bean, potato and black truffle salad

      One day some lovely yellow beans came into the kitchen, fresh from the market, and I remembered something my grandmother used to make for me and my brother Roberto when we came home from school after the summer holidays. My grandfather grew yellow beans in our garden and he would leave them as long as possible over the summer, so they developed proper little fagioli, tiny beans, inside. The flavour was fantastic.

      Each summer Roberto and I used to go away to a children’s holiday camp, then our parents would come and get us and we would go to Emilia Romagna or, later, Liguria for another few weeks. By the time we came home to Corgeno, three things were certain: we would have to go back to school, the maize would have grown as tall as Roberto and me, and the yellow beans would be ready. My grandmother used to boil them – not until al dente, like green beans, but for longer, so they were soft. Then she would boil some potatoes and break them down into a chunky mash – what has since been fashionably called ‘crushed’ potatoes. When we came in from school, she would heat up some butter in a pan, put in the potatoes and beans and cook them until the potatoes were a little crusty and burnt. Then she would break two eggs into the pan, to make a kind of frittata. I remember we would look for the little fagioli inside and pounce on them like prizes. So much of the food we ate when we were children seemed to be associated with little games.

      So when, many years later, the yellow beans came into the kitchen at Locanda, that combination of beans and potatoes kept coming to mind. Of course we had to come up with something a little more refined, so we decided to bring in some black truffles – partly because they are in season at the same time as yellow beans and partly because the starchiness and sweetness of potato really support the flavour of black truffle, which is milder than the white truffle. To highlight the flavour of the truffle even more, and balance the sweet/sour/starchy elements, the salad also needs to be more vinegary than usual, so the vinegar has a real presence in the mouth. If you don’t have any truffles, you can still make a lovely salad – or, if you can find some good quality black truffle and mushroom paste in an Italian deli, add a tablespoon of it to the vinaigrette. In Italy, I would use the yellow Piacentine potatoes, which come from very sandy ground. They have a similar quality to the baby Jersey Royals that we use in London for this salad when they are in season.

      8 medium-sized new potatoes

      240g yellow beans

      small bunch of chives, cut into batons about 4cm long

      1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan

      2 tablespoons Shallot vinaigrette (see page 52)

      3 tablespoons Giorgio’s vinaigrette (see page 51)

      60—70g fresh black truffle

      salt and pepper

      Cook the potatoes in their skins in boiling salted water until soft, then drain (it is always best to cook potatoes in their skins, to keep in as much flavour as possible). Peel them if you like (we do this in the restaurant, purely for the look of the salad, but at home I might not bother).

      In a separate pan, cook the beans in boiling salted water for about 7-9 minutes, until they are slightly overcooked (both the beans and the potatoes should be warm for this salad, so try to make sure they are ready at around the same time). Drain and set aside.

      Cut each potato into quarters lengthways and put them in a bowl with the beans and chives. Season, sprinkle with the Parmesan and toss first with the Shallot vinaigrette, then with Giorgio’s vinaigrette. The dressing should be quite sharp to bring out the flavour of the truffle, so add a little more vinegar if necessary.

      Arrange the potatoes and beans on serving plates and, at the table at the last minute before serving, grate the black truffle over the top.