APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Cortale beans
Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Calabria
In brief
- Five bean varieties from Cortale in the province of Catanzaro: white and yellow reginella, white cannellina, yellow cocò and white cocò. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale)
- The Jacini agrarian inquiry of the late 19th century already noted their quality and sale to nearby towns. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale)
- The plants are hung to dry on wires or fig trees and threshed by hand; dried, the beans keep for up to two years. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale)
History and origin
Cortale lies between the Pilla and Pesipe streams, where the Lamezia Terme plain draws close to the isthmus of Catanzaro. It is a land of valleys with chestnut and beech woods giving way to pine forest, and of fertile, well-watered soils where wheat, maize, vegetables and above all beans are grown.
Their reputation is old. At the end of the nineteenth century the agricultural inquiry carried out for the government by Senator Stefano Jacini noted that Cortale produced potatoes and a quantity of white beans, of exquisite flavour and easy to cook, enough to export them to nearby towns.
From the 1940s production fell, because of depopulation and the arrival of commercial varieties, but the five local varieties never disappeared. The Municipality supported the work of guardian farmers, and with the Slow Food Presidium the growers have committed to preserving them along with the traditional way of growing them.
Area and method of production
The Presidium area covers the municipality of Cortale and parts of neighbouring Jacurso, Maida and San Pietro a Maida, in Catanzaro province. The Presidium's rules call for organic manure or green manuring, low-impact crop protection and no chemical weedkillers.
Sowing takes place at the end of June, broadcast in continuous rows or in small clusters; only the cocò types, late and hardier, are sown at the start of the month and, unlike the other, low-growing varieties, need support from canes or mulberry branches. Harvest comes at the end of September, at the end of October for the cocò.
When the pods are ripe the plants are pulled up, tied in bunches and hung to dry on stretched wires or on fig trees. They are then threshed by hand, plants and seeds are separated by shaking sieves in the wind, and the spulicatùra follows, the hand selection of the best beans. After drying in the sun, the beans keep intact for up to two years.
How to recognise it
Texts often speak of the "Cortale bean", but there are five varieties, selected over the centuries by farmers: the white reginella, called ammalatèddha and the most delicate; the yellow reginella; the white cannellina, also called rognonella for its kidney shape; the yellow cocò, known as limunìdu, which turns red when cooked; and the white cocò.
The seed is medium to large, oval or kidney-shaped. It is usually white, though reginella and cocò also come in a green-beige form. All have a thin skin, flesh that tends to turn floury and a taste between sweet and savoury. Cooking times vary by variety, from 60 to 100 minutes.
ARSAC, which has recorded over a hundred local bean ecotypes in Calabria, names the Cortale bean among those already known and appreciated, with a niche market.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale · ARSAC — La biodiversità agricola in Calabria: il caso dei legumi
In the kitchen
Each variety has its use. The white cannellina and the yellow cocò are eaten boiled and dressed with a drizzle of oil; the reginella goes with short pasta, and the cannellina is cooked with scilatelle, a pasta shape common in Calabria. The cocò are excellent in the traditional mushroom and bean soup.
Cortale's signature dish, however, is the fagiolata, slow-cooked for a long time in terracotta pots.
The dried bean, which keeps for a long time, has fed home cooking in this corner of Catanzaro province for generations: ARSAC recalls that pulses, rich in protein, have always been a staple of the diet and that local varieties, adapted to their surroundings, are a heritage for Calabria.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale · ARSAC — La biodiversità agricola in Calabria: il caso dei legumi
Where to taste it
Cortale beans are found in their home town and in nearby Jacurso, Maida and San Pietro a Maida, on the hills between the Lamezia plain and the isthmus of Catanzaro, the point where Calabria narrows between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas. Harvest runs from late September to late October, and the dried beans are then available all year.
The area is made of valleys with chestnut and beech woods, pine forest and streams, a short distance from the Lamezia plain. ARSAC also places the Cortale bean in the Girifalco area, a sign of a tradition spread across the hills of Catanzaro province.
The same family of studied and promoted Calabrian pulses, ARSAC notes, includes other ecotypes to discover while travelling, such as the Mormanno lentil and the white poverello bean of the Pollino.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale · ARSAC — La biodiversità agricola in Calabria: il caso dei legumi
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — fagioli-di-cortale (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale)
When
- Harvest: September–October (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagioli di Cortale)
- Autumn