Green Beans and Tomatoes in Olive Oil

Green beans were beautiful, local, and inexpensive at the grocery store, so I bought a bunch. I was thinking about a Sicilian green bean dish a friend of mine had made at Christmas - beans, tomatoes, garlic, cooked to death, served only slightly warm. I usually like my green beans barely cooked, but for some reason, I couldn't get enough of the soft garlicky tomatoey beans.

I found this recipe for Green Beans and Tomatoes in Olive Oil (Loobyeh bel Zeyt, لوبياء-بالزيت) from Taste of Beirut. (Awesome blog, great recipes. Go check it out.) Sicilian and Middle Eastern food have some similarities, so I decided to go with it.

The only way I deviated from the recipe was to use half the amount of red pepper flakes, and an equal amount of Aleppo pepper, since I have some that needs to be used up.

Garlic, and lots of it. Tomatoes cooked down to pulpy sauciness. Olive oil. Soft, almost melt-on-your-tongue green beans. Delicious.