looking for a specific string bean recipe

I was making those large flat string beans last night, the ones i believe are called Italian beans - they're light green and cook up bright green, are about half an inch wide and a longer than the regular ones.  It made me crave a dish my friend's mother made back in the 70s or late 60s. 

I remember it has some white sauce, which was not bechamel, it was much lighter, and i think may have been buttermilk - though it could have been sour cream or cream.  I don;t know what else there was in it, but it tasted like more than just buttermilk and beans.  \

Does anybody have such a recipe?  I don't know where she got it, maybe from a magazine or a cooking show (back then there was just julia child, the galloping gourmet and joyce chen I think).

Would love to find it.  

thanks 

 

No, no, no!  NOT green bean casserole.  The dish was light and fresh, there were no canned things in it, and the main reason she made it for me is she knew i hated overcooked beans.  It used blanched romano beans (thanks ky) and something light and simple on it, that had a slight tang, very slight, so i thought maybe buttermilk.   Definitely not even bechamel.  The appearance was of the beans being barely masked in a white sauce, not covered in it like bechamel.  (How is that spelled, anyway? here they spell it like that).

It was heavenly. 

I believe there was something more to it than just plain buttermilk or sour cream poured on the beans, because she spoke of a "recipe", and in our families, hers and mine, one used a "recipe" only for a more complex dish than that.  Also she made everything from scratch.  I was maybe 14 or so, so not really yet into cooking enough to ask her for it. 

 

thanks so much, KY, i did a search, but was looking for buttermilk and romano beans.  But i bet it was something like this.  ]

I'll try it soon, there are lots of beans out there these days at the markets.