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Ragout: For each type of bean, heat a medium saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes. Swirl 2 tablespoons oil into each pan and divide onion, garlic, and thyme between them. Sauté over medium heat about 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the shell beans (again, cooking each variety separately), and cook for a few minutes, stirring to coat them in the oil. Add salt and water to cover 2 inches. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, or until the beans are just tender. (Cooking time will vary depending on the types of beans used. Taste to see if they are done.) Remove from the heat and then cool the beans in the cooking liquid.

While the beans are cooking, blanch haricots verts in a large pot of salted boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes until tender but still al dente. Transfer the haricots verts onto a baking sheet to cool.

Drain the shell beans, reserving the cooking liquid. Heat a large sauté pan over high heat for 1 minute. Swirl in remaining oil, add haricots verts, and shallot to the pan. Add the shell beans, and stir gently, being careful not to crush the beans. Add about 1/2 cup shell bean cooking liquid to the pan to moisten the ragout. Taste for seasoning and cook a few minutes until beans are hot. Add opal basil and parsley right before serving.

Cherry Tomato–Olive Sauce

Olive oil

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons diced shallot

3 tablespoons sliced black olives

1/2 lemon, for juicing

1 tablespoon parsley

2 tablespoons sliced basil, both green and purple (if possible)

To make the Cherry Tomato–Olive Sauce: Heat oil in a medium sauté pan over medium high heat for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes pop and sizzle in the pan. Add shallot and black olives; toss to combine. Season to taste with lemon juice, and add parsley and basil at the last minute.

How to Plate: Arrange the Fresh Shell Bean Ragout on the bottom of a shallow bowl or plate. Top with the Grilled Polenta and spoon Cherry Tomato–Olive Sauce over and around the beans and the polenta. Finish with a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley.

Terrance Brennan

“To me, the vegan lifestyle focuses on clean and healthy flavors, the purity of seasonal ingredients, and eating for the mind, body, and soul. Participating in this book was a natural extension of my own food philosophy, because every day I look to local produce as the starting point to building any dish.”

Terrance Brennan is the chef-proprietor of Picholine Restaurant and Artisanal Bistro and Wine Bar, two highly acclaimed restaurants in New York City, and the founder of Artisanal Premium Cheese, a wholesale and online gourmet cheese company and education center. The son of Annandale, Virginia, restaurateurs, Brennan began cooking at the age of thirteen. In the south of France, his French-Mediterranean cuisine was inspired by Roger Verge at Moulin de Mougins and working in kitchens that included Le Cirque, Taillevent, Le Tour D’Argent, Gualtiero Marchesi, and Gavroche. In 1993, Brennan opened his first restaurant, naming it Picholine after the petite green olives on the Mediterranean coast.

Picholine received a James Beard Foundation nomination for the country’s Outstanding Restaurant in 2007, and was awarded two stars in the 2008 edition of Michelin Guide: New York City. It has earned two three-star reviews from the New York Times and has received Zagat’s Highest Overall ratings since 1997.

Brennan extended its groundbreaking cheese service with Artisinal, a bistro–wine bar–fromagerie voted Best Brasserie Cuisine in the 2002 Zagat Survey and one of New York’s most popular restaurants. In 2007, Brennan set the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Fondue live on NBC’s Today Show and has also appeared on the Food Network and the Martha Stewart Show.

Named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine magazine in 1995, Brennan is a four-time nominee for Best Chef: New York by the James Beard Foundation. His first cookbook, Artisanal Cooking: A Chef Shares His Passion for Handcrafting Great Meals at Home, was published