Seasonal local food recipe No.290 – French beans with pepper and tomatoes

This classic recipe is based on the late Marcella Hazan‘s recipe for French beans with yellow peppers, tomatoes and chilli pepper. We make it with whatever colour pepper we have to hand and sometimes we include the chilli pepper and sometimes we don’t!  You can also use thinly sliced runner beans.

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
450g French beans
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 pepper, cut into strips
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
170g tomatoes (tinned or fresh)
chopped hot red chilli pepper (optional)

Method
Trim the beans, soak them in cold water, drain and set aside.  Put the oil in a pan on medium heat and gently cook the onion until translucent.  Add the pepper and roughly chopped tomatoes, stir well and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Add the chilli pepper (if using) and the beans, turn them over 2 or 3 times to coat them well, add 6 tbsp. of water or less if you are using fresh tomatoes and they are watery.

Cover and cook at a steady simmer until tender, 20-30 minutes depending on the youth and freshness of the beans.  Add more water as needed.  When the beans are done, if the pan juices are watery, uncover, turn the heat up and rapidly boil them down.  Season with salt and chilli pepper to taste.

Lots of peas and beans in our organic veg boxes

It’s a lucky dip again this week. We’re each getting two of the following – French beans, broad beans, peas and mangetout. They’ll be randomly allocated by our volunteer pickers and packers.

*tomatoes
*cucumber
*spinach or Swiss chard
*new potatoes – ‘Rocket’
*onions
*mangetout peas and/or peas in the pod and/or broad beans and/or French beans (purple or yellow)

A real beanfeast in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week

Our French beans are purple or yellow (not green). This enables our volunteer picking and packing team to spot them more easily and harvest them more quickly.

In all our boxes this week:-
*broad beans OR French beans
*white currants
*beetroot
*mixed salad bag
*cucumber
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*new potatoes (CSA / Mark)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra new potatoes
*spring onions
*calabrese (CSA / Mark)
*Swiss chard / kohlrabi
*gooseberries

* = grown to organic principles

All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.  Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these delicious dishes on our recipe page –
Simple ways with broad beans     French beans with new potatoes

French beans and sweetcorn in our boxes this week

Another wonderful selection of  fresh, seasonal, summer vegetables. Like to have a share of the harvest? Details here

All boxes have: –
* French beans
* cucumbers
* tomatoes
* onions
* parsley
* sweetcorn (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin
potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

Standard boxes also have: –
* extra potatoes
* aubergines
* beetroot
* mixed lettuce bag

All veg grown by Camel CSA, unless otherwise indicated
* = grown to organic principles

Fresh, aromatic coriander in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

The pickers have been very busy on their hands and knees, so we’ve all got plenty of coriander and parsley in our vegetable boxes this week. And yes – the French beans are meant to be yellow!

Every box has: –
* coriander (Camel CSA)
* french beans (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* onions (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)
* flat-leaved parsley (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes also have extra potatoes plus:
*  rocket / mixed lettuce leaves (Camel CSA)
* cauliflower (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Seasonal recipe No 62: Spaghetti with beans and tomatoes

In her Garden Cookbook, Sarah Raven credits this recipe to the River Cafe. She says it’s an ‘incredibly fresh-tasting and yet comforting pasta dish’. Good now when there are beans and tomatoes aplenty.

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1kg tomatoes, ideally plum or small beefsteak
300g french beans, topped and tailed
salt
150ml double cream
1 garlic clove, whole and peeled
handful of basil leaves
400g spaghetti
50g grated parmesan cheese to serve

Method
Skin the tomatoes, deseed with a teaspoon and chop them coarsely. Cook the beans in plenty of salted boiling water for 3 minutes until they are just tender. Cool them quickly in a bowl of cold water and drain.

Bring the cream to the boil and add the garlic. Take the pan off the heat and leave the cream to steep for 5 minutes before removing the garlic. Then add the beans, tomatoes and torn-up basil, and toss just for a minute to warm the veg through.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente, drain and mix with the tomatoes and beans. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Tender leek and pancetta risotto

The tender baby leeks in this week’s standard veg boxes deserved special treatment.

What better than a risotto of leeks and pancetta from Nigel Slater’s latest book Tender?

The leeks and the mixed French beans that accompanied them were cultivated by one of Camel CSA’s expert growers, Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest.

Jobs for Sunday 14 June

There’s a great deal to do at Camel Community Supported Agriculture this Sunday as the growing season continues apace.

As expert grower Jeremy Brown explains: –

There are runner beans to plant out and French beans to sow.  We also need to sow some more rows of carrots.

Everything needs weeding – the carrots (yet again!), the parsley and celeriac…  But the onions are okay. 

The early potatoes also need weeding and ridging up.  The peas need supporting and tying up.

Just turn up to join the team on our site at St Kew Highway between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. 

If you can’t manage Sunday, why not come to our new mid-week volunteer session every Thursday morning at the same time?  Or ring Jeremy Brown on 07971762227 if you’d like to help out another day.

Mid-summer celebration for members

Don’t forget it’s our mid-summer barbeque next Saturday 20 June in St Mabyn from 6 p.m. onwards.  Please contact Charlotte Barry if you can come at charlotte.barry@btinternet.com so we have an idea of how many people to expect. 

Everyone is asked to bring some food for the barbeque, a drink and a seasonal side dish or pudding.  Don’t forget to bring your own plate and cutlery as well!