My colleague Michael Linares alerted me the other day to the popularity of Alexa Weibel’s creamy, spicy tomato beans and greens on the NYT Cooking subreddit. In this online community of enthusiastic cooks and commenters, the recipe is going viral. (Do you “go viral” on Reddit? Are they popping off, blowing up? Help me, fellow kids.)
I don’t think I can do this recipe any better service than to share the delightful comments in the thread, so I’ll serve you a selection: “I don’t know what kind of magic is at work here, but I’m convinced this is the food they serve in heaven. 10/10. No notes.”
“To be honest, I do make beans a lot, but this dish is just way above most others I make.”
“Because of this recipe I started finding arugula edible and even enjoyable!”
And, perhaps my favorite: “THA BEANSSS.”
Featured Recipe
Creamy, Spicy Tomato Beans and Greens
Although Alexa’s dish is economical, colorful, healthful and easy and fast to prepare, I think what might be hooking people is its delicious spicy-sweet-creamy flavor combination. The crushed red pepper, sautéed onion, tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes and heavy cream form a powerful flavor mixture that registers as cozy and comforting, the cooking equivalent of a weighted blanket. You see this same combination in Naz Deravian’s marry me chicken — might these be marry me beans?
For more spicy sweetness, there’s Rick Martínez’s new pollo a la piña (pineapple chicken), which gets its kick from canned chipotles in adobo. And while there’s only a pinch of chile flakes in Lidey Heuck’s honey garlic shrimp, I could see adding more — or, indeed, swapping in hot honey for the not-hot honey.
Scrolling through the happy comments on Alexa’s beans naturally reminded me of our list of the 50 most loved New York Times Cooking recipes, published last year to celebrate our 10th anniversary. (Revisiting that list reminded me that I should go through and check off the recipes I’ve made.)
There’s a section of the list that’s dedicated to recipes with memorable (hilarious) comments. If you’re thinking, “Oh, you mean the home-wrecking brownie,” yes, that’s there. As is Yossy Arefi’s chocolate lava cake that kicked off “ramekin discourse” and Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese sauce, which has the distinction of being one of our most popular recipes and the home of this perfect comment. I’ll leave you with it in its entirety:
“I cannot comment of the taste of the sauce. It was cooling and I ran a short errand. In the meantime, my 8-year-old Labrador retriever, Jake (who had never, ever bothered anything in the kitchen), somehow got the pot off of the cooktop and ate all of the sauce. The worst part was that I had tripled the recipe, so Jake ate three pounds of Bolognese sauce! I am certain he would rate the sauce a 5. We had to go out for dinner, but I will make the recipe again and post relevant feedback! P.S. Jake is fine.”
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