Broad Beans, Bacon & Pasta

It's a bit cheeky calling this a recipe - but it's the way we've most enjoyed broad beans as the flavour isn't overpowered. If using young beans, just get them out of the pods. For older or frozen beans, double shell them as the skins will be tough. Dry Cure Bacon makes all the difference here - no vast quantities of salty water mysteriously appearing in the pan! If you are using another type of bacon, cook it separately so you can drain it off before adding.

2 big portions

Ingredients:
Broad Beans - lots of!
1 pack Dry Cure Bacon
Small knob of Butter
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/4 glass of white wine or cider
2 dessert spoons of creme fraiche (optional)
150-200g dried pasta

Method

1. Put the water on for the pasta.
2. Gently melt butter in a sute pan & cook onion until transparent.
3. Add Bacon & cook through keeping the heat gentle.
4. If the water's boiling, cook the pasta in the normal way.
5. Put the beans in the saute pan & mix with the bacon & onion.
6. Add the wine/cider to the pan, take the heat up so that it boils off.
7. If using, add the creme fraiche to the pan
8. Drain the pasta, mix with the contents of the saute pan & serve.

Because of the salty bacon & butter, you may find you don't need to season with additional salt. Black pepper is a good addition though.

Variations:

• Fresh herbs work well - especially thyme, oregano & basil. I wouldn't use rosemary or sage as they may overpower the beans.
• Works with purple sprouting broccolli instead of beans but discard any fibrous or tough stems.
• Very nice with peas too - especially just-picked fresh ones.
• Butter could be replaced - but it really does help with the falvour & richness.