In the UK now, broad beans are at their peak. They will be until September, our most abundant month. Let’s all put on Neil Young and talk about harvesting in something of an autumnal turn of events.
Given that they’re usually ready for picking in June, we’re lucky to have a relatively long run of broad beans here. They are added keenly to falafel;
to bright, citrusy salads; and they work in summer pastas, not least when paired up with their young bedfellows of the pod world, peas.
The chef José Pizarro explains that in his native Extremadura, western Spain, there’s a long-trodden saying: “¡Habas en Abril empiezan y en Abril
acaban!” It translates as: “Broad beans start in April, and finish in April!”
Pizarro explains this in his new cookbook, The Spanish Home Kitchen, which delves into memories of his homeland and the recipes that fuelled him. It is a beautiful book and one that captures a region of Spain less explored by us in Britain, possibly because there’s no coastline or images of a Ray Winstone floating in a swimming pool.
We ought to do better. Extremadura is a remote region brimming with rising mountains, thick forests, lakes and reserves. The wildlife in this part of Spain is bountiful.
In the capital, Mérida, there are the Roman ruins of Augusta Emerita, with a near-intact theatre and an aqueduct that dates all the way back to the first century BC.
Pizarro, who has numerous restaurants around London, including his latest, nestled in the arms of the Royal Academy of Arts, hails from the tiny village of Talaván, near Cáceres in the centre of the region.
In his book, he writes of broad (fava) beans: “Keeping the beans inside, give the whole pods a good wash under the fresh spring water fountain in your village (oh, OK, or under your tap at home), and they’re ready.”
This bucolic and wholesome existence might be possible to replicate in some of the more pastoral parts of the UK. Although I’m not sure that we have anywhere in the country with a village fountain for washing broad beans?
However you might choose to prepare broad beans, using the vegetable in a tortilla, as Pizarro does here, is an excellent way to go.
BROAD BEAN TORTILLA
INGREDIENTS
150ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 onion, very finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500g baby broad beans in their pods, sliced
5 free-range eggs
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE BEANS
Pour 75ml of the olive oil into a large frying pan over a low–medium heat and cook the onion for 10 minutes until lovely and soft. Increase the heat to high and add the garlic and broad beans. Cook for five minutes until tender and golden. Remove from the heat and set aside.
METHOD
In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add the still-warm broad bean mixture and plenty of seasoning. Pour the remaining olive oil into an 18cm deep non-stick frying pan over a high heat.
When the oil is hot, add the egg mixture. Swirl the pan until the mixture starts to set around the edges, then reduce the heat to low and cook for four to five minutes, until the tortilla just starts to set, so the bottom and sides are golden, but the middle is still quite loose.
Cover the pan with a flat lid or board and turn the tortilla carefully on to it. Don’t worry that it is still quite runny: it will all come back together as you cook it. Slide the tortilla back into the pan and, over a low heat, use a spatula to tuck the edges under to give it the curved look. Cook for a couple of minutes, then turn on to a board and serve with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
