>> My mother always loved cooking Sunday supper, and one of her personal favorites was bean soup, which she often made with just about every bean she could find -- kidney beans, lima beans, lentils, black beans, navy beans -- you name it.

Thus began my love of beans.

Today, we'll visit the island of Syros, in Greece, to source some giant white beans.

In Logroño, in Northern Spain, we'll buy a special bean, called Alubia.

And in the Basque region, we'll visit a friend's mom, who will show us her secret recipe for making beans.

Back in San Francisco, we'll cook up some Greek gigantes beans, Spanish-braised beans with chorizo, morcilla, and grilled bread, with beans and greens.

I love to travel the globe in search of new food and wine discoveries.

For me, it's about more than returning home with a handful of new recipes.

It's about taking the spirit of Austria... of Italy... of Greece... and of the Danube River... and injecting some of their magic into our everyday lives.

Food has a unique ability to transport us.

Join me as we discover on our culinary journey together.

>> "Joanne Weir's Plates & Places" is brought to you by... >> With AmaWaterways, guests can climb... pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path while cruising on storied rivers across Europe.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

>> Our winemaking is the result of teamwork and patience.

Working together, we dedicate our best efforts with every vine, grape, and bottle -- Washington Vintners.

>> Since 1899, my family shared our passion for everything that goes into our Mutti 100% Italian tomatoes.

Only tomatoes, only Mutti.

>> For baking, cooking, and snacks, California figs from Valley Fig Growers.

♪ >> I'm on the island of Syros, in Greece, shopping with my chef friend Justine on the market street in the capital city of Hermoupolis.

I never know what I will find, from fragrant oregano on the stem to sea sponges.

Whenever I travel, you'll find me exploring the local markets, and this market is one of my favorites.

Check out the pasta, capers, mustard, and honey.

The variety of Greek products and ingredients is inspiring.

But we are here for beans -- Greek gigantes, to be exact.

Giant beans -- actually extra-large runner beans -- that you'll find in restaurants all over Greece.

When cooked, they hold their shape and are still deliciously creamy.

♪ Check this out.

I brought these back from Greece because I love this store and I love these white beans.

These are white lima beans.

This store is called Prekas.

Of course, you can't really tell from the writing there.

I don't read Greek.

But anyway, I love this dish that's called -- It looks like, if you've read it, gigantes, but it's -- because of the giant beans -- but they say "yigantes."

With these beans, you want to soak them in water for at least four hours, or you can even do it overnight, and then all I want to do is just drain these.

And place them in a pan.

Add water right away.

[ Chuckles ] I'm adding water to cover the beans.

Bring that up to a boil.

I'm going to turn those down and simmer those probably for about 40 to 50 minutes until they're tender.

What's so great about this dish is how simple it is.

You know, beans are great because they're so versatile.

You can add so many different ingredients to them.

And what I love about this one is, it's tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

I mean, it's just so simple.

♪ Now that the beans have cooked, I'm going to just add those to this baking dish.

And I didn't use salt when I was boiling the beans.

Otherwise, the beans don't cook evenly.

When I was a kid, I didn't really like lima beans.

As I got older, I love them now.

And I love this dish.

I've always loved it.

Whenever I go to any Greek restaurant, I always order it.

If it's on the menu, I get it.

Now, that liquid is very important, so... what I do is just take some of that liquid -- going to take a few ladles full...

It's probably about a cup.

And then, I'm also adding some tomatoes.

You can use fresh or canned.

Just peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes.

And some sliced garlic.

You could used minced, too, but I like it like this.

It's just really thinly sliced.

And...

I'm just trying to separate it.

I don't want one person to get all of the garlic.

And then, a little bit of parsley.

And some onions.

I'm adding some extra virgin olive oil.

The Greeks love their olive oil, and they make delicious olive oil.

So, a little bit -- probably about a quarter of a cup.

And then, some black pepper.

And some salt.

And then, just stir this together.

You can see, you want to have some of that liquid, because we're going to put this into the oven for an hour.

So you want to make sure there's liquid.

And the other thing is, if it gets dry while they're cooking, save your bean liquid, and you can go back and add another ladle full.

Okay.

These are going into a 400-degree oven for one hour.

Oh, that looks so good.

I'm excited because I feel like just smelling those beans, I feel like I'm in Greece.

So -- Mmm!

Beautiful and tender.

You've got all that nice liquid.

Just drizzle that over your beans.

And then, because of my love of olive oil, just drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top.

And then just some parsley would look nice.

Just a few leaves of parsley.

Yes.

Sometimes these kinds of dishes are the absolute best.

The humblest of ingredients, simple techniques, and you end up with so much flavor.

For me, beans, they just have so many memories and -- mmm!

Oh, that's so good.

Mmm.

A lot of times, in Greece, they don't make them as brothy.

I love the broth.

It's kind of fun to have bread with this.

Mmm.

So delicious.

You could have red or white wine, but I was kind of dying to have this Assyrtiko.

It's a grape that comes from Santorini, and it's just such a great wine, so I think will be nice with the acidity of this dish.

And, yes, it worked.

Delicious.

Mmm.

All right.

More beans are coming up.

Also, the Italians love beans, too, so I thought it would be fun to do something from Italy with beans.

And for this, I did a crostini that was just topped with some pureed beans with wilted greens on the top.

It's a great thing to serve with drinks before dinner.

Delicious.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ About an hour's drive from Bilbao, in La Rioja, is the bustling city of Logroño.

This region is known for its world-famous Tempranillo wine and incredible hospitality, and this city has both.

I usually head straight to the heart of the city to a four-block area that has one tapas bar after another.

However, today, I want to share with my chef friend Justine a favorite local neighborhood market.

Like most wine countries in the world, produce is abundant and exceptional.

And I'd bet you can guess what we're after here today.

I'm kind of crazy about beans, I have to admit.

I grew up eating them, I love them, and, seriously, it's any shape, color.

They are so beautiful.

Chickpeas.

These beautiful red beans, lentils.

And these are so incredible.

They call them beluga lentils.

They're absolutely beautiful.

And you can see why they call them beluga -- because they look like caviar.

And check this out -- this is a ball of beans.

It's amazing.

This area -- these are the best beans from this area, and they're Alubia de Anguiano, and they're really amazing.

And I'm definitely taking these home to cook something with them.

Wait and see.

♪ These are Alubia beans.

I got them in Spain.

I do want you to know that, so I could show you this, I carried two bags -- actually, this is a ball of beans.

I carried two of them back in my suitcase, and it was really, really heavy.

Each one is a kilo, so that was about 5 pounds of beans.

All right.

Now I'm going to drain these.

These have been soaking in water just for a couple hours.

Then, all I have to do is just to put them into the pan.

I'm also adding some pork belly.

I love this recipe.

Every time I make it, I just feel like I'm in Rioja, and I love -- I love the beans that come from there.

this is also some lamb shoulder, and I've just cut it up into pieces, probably about 2- to 3-inch pieces.

So I'm adding that to the pan.

The lamb adds so much flavor.

You don't even have to brown the lamb.

I'm adding some Anaheim chilies that have been diced.

Ooh, this smells so good.

Those Spanish, they love their garlic.

I'm adding a little bit of garlic.

Some onions.

And then, also, a couple of bay leaves.

And I'm going to add a little bit of olive oil, also.

The olive oil adds richness.

And water.

You don't even need to add stock or broth.

I put this on high heat, and as soon as it comes up to a boil, I turn it down, and I simmer that for one hour.

This looks great.

It's cooked for about an hour, and I think my mother would be really proud of me making this bean dish today.

I'm going to add some morcilla to this.

This is a blood sausage that comes from Spain.

And lots of spices are added to the sausage mixture.

Just place that right in the beans.

I'm just pricking it with this knife.

You could also use a fork if you wanted to.

And you don't have to.

If you don't want to use the morcilla or you can't find it, that's fine, too.

And then, I'm also adding some chorizo.

This is the dry chorizo from Spain.

The spicy hot chorizo is a nice addition to the stew.

Yum!

Just want to make sure that gets into the broth, because that's really going to flavor the broth for the beans.

There's so many great ingredients in this.

So fun to make this here with these fabulous beans from Spain.

Kind of salivating, actually.

[ Chuckles ] This cooks for about 40 minutes.

Now I want to make a little bit of scented oil to go on the top of this wonderful bean stew.

So, I'm warming some olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, in this frying pan, and I want to wait until it's rippling before I add the thin slices of garlic.

But you can see how thin these are.

They're really paper-thin.

A scented oil, like this one, adds so much dimension to the stew.

Now that the pan is nice and hot, I add the garlic.

I don't want it to take on color.

I just want to soften the garlic.

It takes about 15 seconds.

This'll be so good on the top of that bean stew.

And I'm also adding a little bit of sweet paprika.

Sweet paprika, when heated, is more pungent and aromatic.

You can also use smoked paprika if you like, or half sweet and half smoked.

I use just sweet.

All right.

I'm turning that off.

And just in the accumulated heat, that garlic will be nice and soft and cooked through.

This smells so good.

Wonderful.

It's still bubbling away.

When you're traveling in La Rioja, if you head into the mountains, you will find that all of the signage on the shops changes language, from Spanish to Basque.

We are on a mission to learn more about beans in a small family winery in the Basque country, called Tierra.

It's here, in a very small space, that some great red wine is made.

And for me, this region and these people stole my heart at hello -- or, as they say in Basque, kaixo.

You see all these incredible ingredients in front of me?

I'm really excited, because Casilda has made beans for me so many times, but tonight, she's going to show me how she makes them.

And I'm dying to know this process.

Casilda is from the winery Tierra, here in La Rioja, and you make the best beans.

They are the best.

Okay.

So, how do you start making beans?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

And I always thought that we put these in there, but these are there just for fun because they're so beautiful.

Okay.

These cook for about how long?

Okay.

Can we taste this?

I'm so excited to have your beans again.

It's been one year, and I need your beans.

>> Sí.

>> Yes?

Okay.

Perfect!

♪ I'm always so excited to have your beans, and I'm so happy to be here, so we have to taste these.

Here's yours.

Mmm.

These beans absolutely melt in your mouth.

Mmm.

Oh.

Good?

Mmm.

So good.

I love these.

You do such a good job.

The beans are amazing.

I love all of the meats we have.

Mmm.

Mmm.

They're so creamy.

It's the beans that come from Rioja are the best.

They're absolutely the best.

And what I really love is the pepper.

Just break it off with your hands.

And you eat a little bite with it, and those are pickled, and they're a little spicy.

But it's the beans and the hot together are absolutely perfection.

Then you taste a little bit of red wine.

Salud.

Salud.

You're the best.

>> De nada.

[ Both laugh ] ♪ >> Mmm.

That is so good.

I'm very happy.

Thank you so much.

Time went by way too fast here at Tierra, in the heart of the Basque country.

What generous people.

As I sit with my dear friends, watching the sun set over these beautiful mountains, this is the kind of moment that will stay with me forever.

It was so fun to learn Casilda's techniques for making her special beans.

They're really phenomenal, and what I really love, too, was the pickled pepper that was on the top.

I've had them before, when they do them with fresh peppers, the same exact pepper, but this was pickled, and I really liked it.

Maybe that was a special night.

Maybe it was because we were filming her.

But anyway, she was like a little star.

When I say "little," she's about, you know, 2 feet tall.

She's adorable, and I loved her.

I learned so much from her.

♪ That looks good, doesn't it?

Ah, the morcilla.

Thought I would just cut that.

Maybe a little bit of the pork belly.

Let's see.

Yeah, that looks good.

So, you can just cut this into a few pieces.

Morcilla is really delicious and kind of spicy.

It's really excellent.

And I'll cut a little of this pork belly.

I went straight for the morcilla right away because it's so good.

Mmm.

Wow.

Look at those beans.

They look fabulous.

Check out the chorizo.

And the lamb -- it's just falling apart.

Amazing.

Yum!

Well, I'm really happy.

But then, also, remember that oil?

I think that's going to be so good on the top.

Just stir it a little bit before, and then, just drizzle that right over the top.

The smells are just really intoxicating.

Remember the peppers?

Well, I thought that would be fun to have that alongside.

And let's see.

Smells so good.

I'm very excited about it.

Ooh.

These little pieces of garlic, they look so good.

Mmm.

Wow.

I think Casilda would be really, really proud of me, because these really taste like her beans.

Now let's see about the pepper.

Ooh!

A little bit hot.

Ooh!

That's so good.

Mmm.

I love that.

Absolutely wonderful.

You can really taste that pimenton.

Mmm.

Nice big cab -- this'll be beautiful.

Mmm.

Wow.

That's wonderful.

Just brings all those flavors alive.

It's so great.

You know, whether you are on the island of Syros, the Basque region of Spain, San Francisco, or Massachusetts, where I grew up, beans are the best.

Whether they're braised, pureed, made into a stew, or the topping for toast, if you're anything like me or my mom, you can't get enough.

>> You can visit my website to find and print selected recipes, get information about each episode, learn more about the show, see behind-the-scenes photos, provide e-mail feedback, and more.

It's all at joanneweir.com/plates-places.

>> "Joanne Weir's Plates & Places" is brought to you by... >> With AmaWaterways, guests can climb... pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path while cruising on storied rivers across Europe.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

>> Our winemaking is the result of teamwork and patience.

Working together, we dedicate our best efforts with every vine, grape, and bottle -- Washington Vintners.

>> Since 1899, my family has shared our passion for everything that goes into our Mutti 100% Italian tomatoes.

Only tomatoes, only Mutti.

>> For baking, cooking, and snacks, California figs from Valley Fig Growers.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪