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Peas, beans and prosciutto November 19, 2009 One of the great things about spring is the arrival of the bean season and I am particularly fond of broad beans. The very young beans can be eaten pods and all, while larger beans need to be podded. Older beans are often double-podded. After cooking them for about five minutes they are refreshed in cold water then the skins are slipped off. For today’s recipe, the beans I chose were mainly small so I didn’t bother with the secondary podding. Generally you will find a kilo of broad beans will yield about 400g of podded beans. Fresh broad beans can be made into a tasty dip. Cook them first then slip off the skins and place the beans in a food processor with some lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt and cayenne pepper and a little of the cooking liquid and process until smooth. Serve with wedges of flat bread. They are also good served as a salad with a dressing of olive oil, sherry vinegar and a little whole seed mustard and a mixed with torn mint leaves. Broad beans go well with bacon but for today’s dish I used a few slices of prosciutto. This air-dried Italian ham is salt cured so the dish will probably not require any additional salt, particularly if the chicken stock is already salted. Add the sugar snap peas right at the end of cooking just to heat them through so they retain their crunch.
Peas, beans and prosciutto 1 tablespoon butter Heat the butter in a large saucepan and add the onion, garlic and prosciutto and sauté until the onion is cooked. Add the beans and the chicken stock and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until most of the stock has evaporated. Add the whole sugar snap peas and cook for a further minute.
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