Cranberry Beans (Borlotti)

Cranberry Beans (Borlotti): Nutrition and Complete Guide

Cranberry beans — known in Italy as borlotti and in France as coco rosé — are medium-sized, cream-coloured beans mottled with crimson speckles and streaks, one of the most visually beautiful of all legumes. Like all markings on fresh or recently dried beans, the distinctive speckled pattern fades to a uniform pinkish-tan during cooking. The borlotti bean is one of the most important culinary beans in northern Italian cooking — essential to ribollita, pasta e fagioli, and simple braised bean preparations. In Britain, borlotti beans are available both dried and, in season (late summer and early autumn), as fresh pods at farmers markets and Italian delis — the fresh bean is particularly prized for its velvety texture and sweet, nutty flavour. Cranberry beans are also important in Portuguese (feijão catarino) and Turkish (barbunya) cooking.

Nutritional Value and Cooking

Dried cranberry beans provide 335 kcal and 23 g of protein per 100 g, with 60.4 g of carbohydrates and an extraordinary 24.7 g of fibre — among the highest of any pulse. They provide excellent folate, manganese, copper, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and thiamine. When cooked: approximately 136 kcal and 9.3 g protein per 100 g. Soak overnight, simmer forty-five to sixty minutes. For pasta e fagioli: simmer borlotti beans with sage and garlic, partially mash to thicken, add pasta and cook together with good olive oil. For ribollita: add to a thick Tuscan bread soup with cavolo nero. Fresh borlotti beans need no soaking — cook for thirty to forty minutes in their pods' cooking liquid.