Broad beans are one of my favourite vegetables. I like them at every stage - from the tiny underdeveloped beans in their fluffy pods that can be eaten without shelling right through to the mealy giants that somehow escaped picking, but nevertheless can play a starring role in a vivid green dip.I rather overdid the planting this year. As the early sowing season went a little awry, I bought a couple of dozen plants from a roadside stand, rather than growing them from seed myself. When I got them home, I found that they were actually a dwarf variety called The Sutton which only grows to about 15 inches high. This sent me into a bit of a flap as I was worried that they wouldn't be very productive. As broad beans are one of the few vegetables that I freeze in any quantity, I made another sowing of a normal-sized variety just to be on the safe side. But Sutton has been incredibly productive and I have been picking, podding, eating, blanching and freezing broad beans nearly every day for the last couple of months. And now the second sowing has come onstream! The pigs are happy though, as they love tucking in to the crunchy pods.
The other star waiting to be photographed this week was the cavolo nero. Back in the days when we had an organic veg box every week I remember finding this a troublesome vegetable. I don't know whether it was the variety or the way I cooked it, but we always found it rather bitter and unappetising.A couple of years ago my sister offered me some plants, so I decided to give it another go as it is one of the winter-hardy brassicas. Unfortunately cavolo nero proved to be the chickens' no. 1 favourite vegetable ever - they pecked the poor plants to stalks in very short order.
This year the chickens are well and truly locked up and are no longer able to take their toll of my veg beds, so I decided to give this Tuscan kale another try. And it has grown beautifully. The problem today was to find a way to pair it up with another wave of broad beans. Ribollita would be the obvious answer, but it wasn't a soup sort of day. A bit of google fu came up with cavolo nero con le fette, or bruschetta with kale. It was such an unlikely-sounding proposition that it just had to be given a try.
The cavolo nero was still quite young and probably didn't actually need de-ribbing, but all the authorities seemed to think this necessary and for once I followed their advice. I put the chopped leaves to simmer gently for about 20 minutes. This is much longer than I would normally cook kale or cabbage and it felt slightly wrong to do it, but the resulting leaves were beautifully non-bitter, which probably explains why my attempts at cooking it years ago were so unsuccessful.
While it was cooking I podded the broad beans and steamed them for a couple of minutes until the skins started to loosen. Removing the skins is indeed a faff and such a labour of love that I tend, selfishly, to only do it for someone who will appreciate the effort. Generally myself! The vivid inner beans went into the blender with some salt and pepper, chopped mint and a little olive oil. A quick pulse was enough as a purée isn't what is needed here.
The rest is simple self-assembly. Slice some crusty bread and toast it. Rub the slices with half a clove of garlic. Drain the kale, spoon generously onto half of the bread and season. Do the same with the broad bean mix. Drizzle very lightly with a little posh olive oil and sprinkle with a few slivers of air-dried ham. Both of the bruschetta toppings worked surprisingly well, particularly the kale which had a depth of flavour that belied its humble origins.
