broad beans in wetsuits

broad beans are not a vegetable i have ever prepared or eaten - the main reason i have avoided them is the painful association with miscarriages. i lost a ridiculous number of babies at about the stage where the pregnancy books describe the baby as being about the size and shape of a broad bean. so you will understand that i usually flinch away from them in the greengrocer and the market.

but a dear friend gave me a bag of lovely fat beans last week and it seemed both churlish and silly not to use them...

so this evening as i looked in vain for advice from the delphic fridge, i suddenly saw suzanne's broad beans and remembered other bloggy friends and my sister speaking highly of bumper crops and various recipes to use them.

so i consulted uncle google and found something that wasn't too vegetarian but combined virtue with flavour. remember girls and boys, almost everything can be improved with the addition of bacon

w, em and i shelled the beans and sang along to crowded house and a jolly time was had by all until we got to the second skin shedding stage.  which was rather repellent. because taking off that skin is like removing a very small wetsuit and then they lie unappealingly flaccid in the compost bowl...

i didn't stay to ponder the skins but moved onto the cooking part. i browned bacon, added garlic, the beans, cherry tomatoes, basil, mint and parsley and cooked it gently for a bit with a dash of suzanne's excellent home-made chicken stock.

add lots of pepper and serve over pasta - molto yumbo

especially when followed by excellent but unphotographed pannettone

i promise something textiley creative will be presented on this blog soon - i have been shamefully lacking in that area lately