The borlotti bean, or cranberry bean, is a plump, rounded cultivar of the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris, instantly known by its raw seed coat of creamy beige splashed and streaked with deep crimson-magenta. It is an Italian kitchen staple — the bean of pasta e fagioli and Tuscan and Venetian soups — prized for a thin skin and a dense, creamy, gently sweet and nutty flesh. The dramatic markings are only skin deep: they cook away to a uniform soft brown, leaving the smooth, chestnut-like interior that makes borlotti one of the most loved beans of northern Italian cooking.