It’s a cliché, almost, that in central Italy in spring, men gather outside country bars to shell broad beans, drink Chianti and eat sheep’s cheese. They talk about “the death” (la morte) of particular ingredients at particular times, and the use of them to their fullest potential or destiny. The first smallest, sweetest beans are certainly best enjoyed raw in your fingers with the top of the baguette before you’ve left the market.
Broad beans can have a long season, depending on when they are sown. I’ve been told off before for calling it too early and picking their tender top shoots and flowers for a tasty salad rather than leaving the plants to grow. But it’s around now that we really start to see them hit the shops; and if you’ve waited for British ones over imports from sunnier climes, it’s time to reward yourself.
The second crop of broad beans could be the ones in this simple salad I’ve laid out. It is also possible, of course, to eat the pods, but I think this is overrated. I do this only with the couple of handful of beans I’ll draw out of my tiny yard this summer.
If the beans are a little larger you could debate peeling them. And while I’m happy to agree that life is too short for this sort of thing, I sometimes like to shell them at home to their shiny green interiors prior to cooking. I am less of a fan of stopping the beans cooking in cold water and then shelling. “Refreshing” is usually a mistake – washing away flavour and natural salinity.
The mineral flavours are even stronger in dried beans. I’ve been eating them all winter after my friend, Leila McAlister, commented that a fresh loaf of bread and a bowl of puréed fava was excuse enough for a party. This might be the easiest way to get close to their magic and ancient nature. The way I’ve treated them here highlights a freshness that is not out of place in the spring, almost as though they’d been cooked straight from the pod.
Broad bean, new potato and dandelion salad
If you can’t find certified, 100% dog-free dandelions (I buy mine rather than forage for them in town), or you are wary of bitter vegetables, use spring greens instead.
Serves 2
For the sauce:
egg 1, hard-boiled
gherkin 1, large
capers 15g
olive oil half a cup
mustard 1 tsp
For the salad:
new potatoes 300g, scrubbed clean
small broad beans 320g, shelled
dandelion leaves 3 bunches, trimmed and thoroughly washed (or 500g of spring greens)
salted anchovies 6 (optional)
Roughly chop the hard-boiled egg with the gherkin and capers. Transfer to the mortar and pestle, add mustard, then slowly the oil, drop by drop, muddling with the mortar to make a thick, emulsified sauce, but with texture.
Bring 2 pans of salted water to the boil. In one, boil the potatoes until just cooked, then allow to cool and slice. In the other, boil the greens for 5 minutes until just tender, remove, and then add the broad beans for 5 minutes. Toss the greens and beans with 1 tsp of olive oil before arranging them on a plate with the potatoes. Spoon over the sauce and, if using, the anchovy fillets.
Zuppa di frascarelli e fave
Frascarelli is the simplest pasta imaginable and requires no kneading or rolling, and only a small amount of know-how. It does, however, require good flour. Use an Italian brand of semolina flour from hard wheat. If you don’t want to make your own pasta you could substitute with the tiny pasta usually bought for babies.
Serves 2
For the pasta:
semolina flour 150g
00 flour 150g
eggs 2
For soup:
red onion 1
carrot 1
celery sticks 3
garlic 1 ½ cloves, chopped
dried chilli 1, crumbled
shelled broad beans 340g
tomato passata 300g
pecorino cheese
salt and pepper
Sift the flours together on to a large board or tray, using your hands to spread to a fairly even depth. Vigorously beat the eggs. Using a pastry brush or a fork, dribble a little egg over the flour in globules and streaks. Emulate Jackson Pollock in both wrist action and golden eggy abstract – but don’t overdo it.
When you are satisfied with your picture use your immaculately clean hands like rakes to pull the flour from underneath gently over the eggs. Keep covering and tossing, but don’t rub as if you were making crumble. Then put the flour gently into a large-meshed sieve and shake back on to the tray. Appearing at the bottom of the sieve will be pieces of pasta like mini-cornflakes – carefully transfer these to another tray or board.
Then repeat again with more egg, tossing and sieving, etc, until all the egg is used up. You can use any leftover flour for something else. This rudimentary pasta needs a couple of hours to dry out.
To make the soup, dice the onion, carrot and celery sticks, and sweat them with a pinch of salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the garlic and chilli once cooking is under way. Cook this soffritto on your lowest heat for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time to release its deepest sweetness. Then add the passata and increase the heat.
Let it cook for 8 minutes before adding 2 litres of water. Allow to simmer for another 5 minutes before adding the frascarelli and simmering for 5 minutes more. Don’t be afraid to add boiling water if it looks too thick. Serve straight away with grated cheese and extra chilli if you like.
Lamb with broad beans and fennel seeds
This is a quick and elegant supper, where the shelled beans cook on the top of the stove in time with the lamb. The curds make a sauce that would be delicious crushed into potatoes, or mopped up with good bread.
Serves 4
cannons of lamb 2, about 350g each
broad beans 400g, double shelled
garlic 1 clove, finely sliced
fennel seeds 1 tsp
dried chilli 1, crumbled
milk 100ml
rind of unwaxed lemon ½
parsley a couple of sprigs
salt and pepper
olive oil
Heat a little oil in a heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid. Season the lamb and sear on all sides to flavour the pot, being careful it doesn’t start to blacken. Add the fennel seeds, garlic and crumbled chilli. After allowing it to fry slightly, add the lemon peel and washed parsley sprigs, quickly followed by the broad beans. Watch the pan carefully at this stage. You need to add the milk before the garlic gets too dark.
Stir as the milk begins to curdle, basting the meat once or twice before putting on the lid. Cook over a medium heat for about 8 minutes, turning the meat and basting halfway through. If the liquid evaporates to the point of sticking, add extra milk.
Let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Smashed broad beans
Different dried beans cook at radically different speeds. While hard to overcook for a smashed recipe like this, they don’t all have to be completely soft. For ease of preparation, opt for pre-podded split beans and look out for the exquisitely small British ones I see around.
Serves 4
broad beans 100g, dried and shelled
mint leaves a small handful
parsley leaves a large handful
olive oil 100ml
pecorino 100g, strong, grated
garlic ¼ clove
salt and pepper
Soak the beans in water for half a day or more. Then boil them in salted water for 30 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. Put the garlic and a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle and pound to a paste. Continue pounding, adding the herbs little by little. Then add the beans and work until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, stir in olive oil and pecorino and taste for salt and pepper.
Joseph Trivelli is a head chef at the River Café (rivercafe.co.uk). Nigel Slater returns in a fortnight
