What it is
A small, round, very white bean from Controne, without spots or eyes, valued for digestibility, thin skin and short cooking time.
Origin place card
The source anchors the bean to the comune of Controne in Salerno province.
Verified history
The official page documents a yearly festival on the last weekend of November and gives local dishes tied to the bean. Treat this as source-supported tradition/history from Regione Campania — Fagiolo di Controne; The current evidence does not independently establish a founder, precise origin date, first attestation, monastery, saint, or archival origin story.
Local hypothesis
This is a November destination page: a small white bean becomes a town festival and a menu. Source-supported detail: It is seeded in May and picked in November and is used a lot to prepare typical local dishes.
Local legend / oral tradition
No legend documented; civic tradition is the annual sagra and local dishes.
Ingredients
Fagiolo di Controne; dishes include fagioli al tozzetto, fagioli e scarola, pasta e fagioli and lagana with beans. Source-supported detail: è un fagiolo piuttosto piccolo, rotondo e bianchissimo, senza macchie e senza occhi, particolarmente pregiato per l'alta digeribilità e tempi di cottura brevi dovuti alla buccia sottile; anche il baccello è di colore bianco.
Method
Sow in May and harvest in November; cooking specifics require recipe recovery, but the source notes short cooking due to thin skin. Source-supported detail: Si semina a maggio e si raccoglie a novembre ed è molto utilizzato per la realizzazione di piatti tipici locali.
Ritual / calendar
Ogni anno, l'ultimo fine settimana di novembre, Controne gli dedica una sagra, in quest'occasione è possibile acquistare i fagioli o degustare i piatti tipici della zona: fagioli al tozzetto, fagioli e scarola, pasta e fagioli, o lagana con i fagioli.
Why travel for it
Controne is an atlas stop: go in late November for the bean and the dishes built around it.
Recreate-it pathway
Recipe variants can be fielded safely for soup/lagana/scarola; source does not give quantities.
Editorial warning
Keep festival timing precise and crosslink to lagana/fagioli e scarola when developed.
Fieldwork questions
What is served at the current sagra? Who produces seed locally? Are the no-eye/no-spot standards used commercially?
Photo brief
White beans, late-November sagra, lagana/pasta plate, Controne streets.