Late summer is butter bean season, when farmers haul coolers full of shelled and plastic-bagged beans to the market, and people across the region add them to simmering stewpots. As with green beans, the usual way to prepare butter beans here in cornbread country is to cook them until falling-apart tender, with a ham hock or a few slices of bacon for seasoning. But the Garden & Gun staff can name at least one good exception: the butter bean salad from Monza, a restaurant down the street from our Charleston offices that serves salads, pastas, and wood-fired pizzas. This simple salad is a lighter way to enjoy a seasonal treasure before it goes into the freezer for the rest of the year.