Green Beans in Tomato Sauce. When I lived in Italy, I cooked green beans in tomato sauce a lot during the last months of summer. During that time, the greens were ready to be picked from my home garden. At times, there were so many green beans to be picked, that I had to be creative with my green beans recipes. This is an excellent side dish. It goes well with roasted or grilled meat.

Serving: 4 people

Ingredients

2 lbs green beans

20 oz crushed tomatoes (canned or fresh) 

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 leaves of basil

1 carrot

2 gloves garlic

salt

pepper

Preparation

Bring a pot of water to boil.  Add the green beans, cook them for 10 minutes.  While the green beans are boiling, add the extra virgin olive oil to a saucepan. Add whole garlic, crushed tomatoes, and 1/2 cut carrot, leaves of basil, salt and pepper to the saucepan. Cook them very slowly for 20 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of water and bring it to a boil.

Drain the already cooked green beans and added it to the tomato sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Before serving remove the carrot and the garlic. These ingredients were just added to add flavor and minimize the acidity of the tomatoes.

Buon Appetito!