Instructions: 1 Top-and-tail the beans and wash them. Wash the tomatoes, remove the seeds, chop roughly. Peel and crush the garlic.

2 Heat the oil in a pressure cooker, put in the sprig of thyme, immediately followed by the tomatoes and garlic. Season.

3 When the tomatoes have cooked down a little, add the beans and mix with the tomatoes. Close the pressure cooker and cook for 10 minutes once the whistle has begun. Serve immediately.

Beans were rare and expensive in France during the whole of the 19th century. They were not widely cultivated and so were imported from Spain and Algeria.

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