• 1½ pounds green beans, wax beans, or romano beans
• 1 small garlic clove
• 2 lemons

• 1½ ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 1⁄3 cup)

• Kosher salt
• ¾ cup roasted, salted pistachios
• 1⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Bring 4 quarts water and 1 ½ cups salt to a boil in a large pot.¹
2. Do some prep: Finely chop ¾ cup roasted, salted pistachios until all the pieces are about the size of a lentil. Trim the ends of 1½ pounds green beans.
3. Cook the beans: Once the water boils, stir in the beans and cook until just tender but not limp, 5 to 6 minutes.² While the beans cook, fill a large bowl with ice and water. Using a spider strainer or tongs, transfer the cooked beans to the ice bath to stop the cooking. Keep them in the ice bath until completely cool.
4. Make the dressing: Finely grate 1 garlic clove and the zest of 1 lemon into a medium bowl. Cut the zested lemon and a second lemon in half and add the juice from both lemons to the bowl, whisking it all to combine. Slowly stream in 1⁄3 cup olive oil, whisking as you go. Stir in 1½ ounces grated Parmesan cheese (about 1⁄3 cup). Season the dressing with salt and lots of black pepper. Stir in the chopped pistachios.
5. Drain and assemble: Drain the beans, then transfer them to a clean kitchen towel and pat dry.³ Add the green beans to the bowl of dressing, tossing well to coat. Taste and add more salt and black pepper if you think it needs it. Serve them up! These are best served very cold, so keep them covered and refrigerated until serving if you’re making them in advance.

Tips

• ¹ YES! THAT IS SO MUCH SALT! But the beans are spending only a couple of minutes in the boiling water, and it takes a LOT of salt to penetrate something as fibrous as a green bean. I have tested this outrageous amount of salt, and I promise you, your beans are going to be perfectly seasoned, NOT salty.
• ² Taste one and see if it’s done—they shouldn’t be fibrous or tough to chew, but you also don’t want them to be totally lifeless and mushy. Find that happy, snappy medium.
• ³ You want them as dry as possible so as not to introduce any water into the dressing we just made, which will dilute the flavor

Excerpted from Cook This Book by Molly Baz.
Copyright © 2021 by Molly Baz.
Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.