Judías de El Barco de Ávila — Castile and León, Spain

Judías de El Barco de Ávila are large, flat, white beans grown around the town of El Barco de Ávila, in Castile and León. They are known for a thin skin and a creamy texture once cooked, qualities that earned the crop a protected geographic designation on 5 January 1989. The beans are grown in the Ávila province, along the Tormes river valley, in a climate cooks in the region consider particularly suited to bean cultivation. The designation covers the growing area and sets standards for the crop, without extending to a fixed way of cooking it. To prepare a stew, the dried beans are soaked overnight, then simmered gently with onion, garlic and bay leaf, usually alongside pork ribs, chorizo or morcilla, in a good amount of water. The pot is left to cook slowly for one and a half to two hours, skimming any foam from the surface, so the beans soften without breaking apart. A little sweet paprika and olive oil are stirred in toward the end. The dish is typically served as a single-pot main course, the beans themselves providing most of the body and thickness of the stew without any added flour, a quality attributed to the thin skin and starch content that define this particular bean.