Tender Green Beans with Toasted Hazelnuts

Haricots verts are the slim, delicate cousins of regular green beans, and they have a way of going limp if you look at them wrong. That is why this dish is built in two stages. The beans get a quick dip in boiling water and then an ice bath, which keeps them bright green and just tender. You can do that step a day ahead, which makes a weeknight dinner feel much less like a scramble.

The onion does a lot of quiet work here. Cooking it slowly in olive oil with a little salt until it turns light golden draws out its sweetness, so the whole pan tastes rounder without any sugar or cream. Hazelnuts are the other star. They have a warm, buttery flavor that gets deeper once they are toasted, and a coarse chop leaves a few larger pieces that give you a nice crunch in every bite. If you have a bag of blanched hazelnuts in the cupboard, that is all you need.

A few things I have learned from making this more than once. Keep the heat moderate when you warm the beans so they take on a little color without drying out. Chop the nuts while they are still warm from the oven, because they are easier to cut then. And do not crowd the skillet. If the beans are piled high, they steam instead of sizzling, and you lose the lightly blistered edges that make them taste like more than a plain vegetable.

This side pairs well with simple mains. It sits nicely beside Stuffed Pesto Pork with Roasted Vegetables on a weeknight, and it is a good partner for Skillet Salmon with Soy Mushrooms and Rice when you want the plate to feel complete. For a meatless supper, put it next to Warm Spiced Eggplant and Chickpea Stew and spoon some of the beans over a bowl of rice.

Leftovers keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Warm them in a dry skillet rather than the microwave, and add the nuts only after reheating so they stay crisp.