Apulica — Taste Travel Together

APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES

Volturara Irpina quarantino bean

Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

Volturara Irpina stands on an upland plain in the province of Avellino, at the foot of Monte Terminio, in a landscape of fields, woods and chestnut groves. For generations a tender white bean has been grown here, which locals call «quarantino», a name that recalls the length of its ripening cycle.

Tradition had it sown next to maize: the corn plant acted as a stake for the bean, which climbed it without the need for poles. In the crop rotation the bean alternated, and still alternates, with the other typical crops of the Avellino area, wheat and potatoes.

Growing it is entirely manual and laborious, so it has never lent itself to large-scale production, and over time the number of growers has fallen to a handful. The Slow Food Presidium, supported by the Municipality of Volturara Irpina, was created to revive the variety, also involving local restaurateurs in promoting it.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagiolo quarantino di Volturara Irpina · Regione Campania — Fagiolo di Volturara Irpina (prodotto tradizionale)

Area and method of production

The Presidium area coincides with the municipality of Volturara Irpina. On the upland plain the climate is cool, rainy at certain times of year and often foggy, so the bean grows without irrigation. It is grown without poles or supports, without fertilisers and without chemical weedkillers: weeds are removed by hand.

It is sown in May and harvested between late August and early September. The dried pods, about fifteen centimetres long with around ten seeds each, are beaten with a stick or with the «muillo», a tool made of a long, sturdy stick tied to a shorter one. The regional sheet also mentions breaking the pods by treading on them.

Then comes the cleaning: the «chiurnicchio», a round sieve, separates the heavier debris, while tossing the beans in the air lets the wind carry away the lighter chaff. Finally the beans dry in the sun for three more days and are traditionally stored with black pepper and garlic cloves, in glass or glazed earthenware jars.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagiolo quarantino di Volturara Irpina · Regione Campania — Fagiolo di Volturara Irpina (prodotto tradizionale)

How to recognise it

The quarantino is a small, irregularly shaped bean with a very thin, ash-white skin and an inconspicuous eye. Set beside an ordinary cannellino, its small size and muted shade of white are easy to spot.

When cooked it becomes tender and slightly floury: the Campania Region stresses its particular softness and intense flavour, qualities that come from the fertile soils of the Irpinian upland and from cultivation that has remained entirely manual.

It is found mostly dried, because after the late-summer harvest it is dried and stored, so it is available all year round.

Sources: Regione Campania — Fagiolo di Volturara Irpina (prodotto tradizionale) · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagiolo quarantino di Volturara Irpina

In the kitchen

In Volturara the bean is the basis of many soups: fasùli e ditalini, laane e fasuli with home-made pasta, pasta e fasuli, bean soup with scazzuoppoli, small pieces of fried dough, and bean and potato soup. The regional sheet adds bean soup with freselle.

The dish most tied to the area pairs the bean with another symbol of this part of Irpinia, the chestnut. The beans cook with pork rind and dried chestnuts in water, salt and bay leaf; then they go into a pan with garlic, olive oil and lard, where they are joined by the chestnuts.

Everything is served hot over stale bread: a mountain dish that captures the farming cooking of the upland plain.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagiolo quarantino di Volturara Irpina · Regione Campania — Fagiolo di Volturara Irpina (prodotto tradizionale)

Where to taste it

The quarantino bean is found in Volturara Irpina, on the upland plain at the foot of the Terminio, one of the peaks of the Picentini Mountains, not far from Montella and the other chestnut villages. It makes a natural stop for anyone exploring green Irpinia among woods and upland plains.

According to the Campania Region the beans are sold in local markets; the growers belonging to the Presidium, with their contacts, are listed on the Slow Food page. The Presidium also involves local restaurants, so traditional quarantino dishes can be met in the kitchens of the area.

Harvest falls at the end of summer, but the dried beans are available all year.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Fagiolo quarantino di Volturara Irpina · Regione Campania — Fagiolo di Volturara Irpina (prodotto tradizionale)

Protection

When

Where

Campania