This is an old favourite from Vegetarian Meals by Rosamund Richardson.  It is good served with a green salad.

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
2 medium aubergines
olive oil
225 g pasta shapes
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 garlic clove, crushed
225 g strong cheese, grated
salt and pepper

Method
Cut the aubergines into fairly thin slices and sprinkle with salt.  Let them sweat for 30 minutes, and then rinse the salt off and wipe dry.  Cook the aubergine in olive oil – they absorb it well, so you will need quite a lot – until they are soft and slightly browned.

Cook the pasta ‘al dente’.  Make up 300 ml of tomato sauce using the tomato puree, crushed garlic and water.  Put layers in a baking dish of the tomato sauce, sliced aubergine, pasta and cheese, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go.  Finish with a layer of cheese and bake at 180°C/Gas mark 4 for 25 minutes.

We’ve each got a bag of red tomatoes as well as yellow ones, plus aubergines, the “long purple” variety. Standard boxes have a fennel bulb.

In all our boxes this week:
*tomatoes
*aubergines
*Swiss chard or spinach
*mixed salad bag
*parsley
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*cucumbers
*mangetout peas or French beans
*fennel

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.  Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these tasty dishes on Camel CSA’s recipe page –
Neela’s aubergine and potato

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.

Each elephant garlic clove is as big as your thumb.

We planted a few of these very expensive garlic cloves just two years ago as a propagation experiment. This season our clever professional growers have cultivated enough to provide one giant bulb for each veg box.

It has a mild taste and is best roasted or it can be used raw – chopped or grated into salads.

In all our boxes this week:
*elephant garlic bulb
*basil
*parsley
*tomatoes
*aubergine OR green peppers
*broad beans OR French beans OR mangetout peas
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*mixed salad bag
*cucumber
*calabrese OR curly kale

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these ways of using basil on our recipe page –
Pesto gnocchi
Jekka’s basil oil

This is a deliciously simple summer dish which can be eaten hot or cold. It’s ideal for a picnic or lunch in the garden. There are many versions, this one is from Valentine Warner at BBC Food

Serves: 2

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes

Ingredients
200g broad beans (podded weight)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled, chopped (or spring onions)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 large free-range eggs
100g feta cheese, crumbled
small bunch fresh mint leaves (or parsley), chopped

Method
Cook the broad beans in a pan of boiling, salted water for 2-3 minutes, or until tender. Drain well, then refresh in cold water. When the beans are cool enough to handle, peel away the outer skins, if you want to.

Heat the oil in a small ovenproof frying pan over a low heat. Add the onion and season with a pinch of salt. Fry for 8-10 minutes, or until softened but not browned.

Meanwhile, preheat the grill to its highest setting. In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well combined and full of air, then season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

When the onions have softened, increase the heat to medium and pour in the beaten eggs. Sprinkle over the crumbled feta, mint or parsley leaves and cooked broad beans. Leave the pan on the heat for 2-3 minutes, or until the underside of the egg mixture is pale golden-brown. (NB: Do not stir the mixture.)

Transfer the pan to the grill and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until the top side of the egg mixture is firm and pale golden-brown. Place a large plate upside-down over the pan, then turn the pan over so that the omelette falls onto the plate. Cut it into wedges and serve with crusty white bread.

In all the boxes this week: –
*broad beans
*tomatoes
*onions
*beetroot
*mangetout peas or French beans (purple or yellow)
*aubergine
potatoes

Standard boxes also have: –
extra potatoes
*cucumber
*green pepper
*carrots

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.  Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these quick and easy broad bean dishes on our recipe page –
Simple ways with broad beans

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.

The tomatoes are fruiting madly along with the green peppers and aubergines. We have more than 100 tomato plants indoors and they have to be tended carefully – it takes one of us about three hours to prune them every Monday. A pleasant job until the polytunnel heats up!

In all the boxes this week: –

*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)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra new potatoes
*basil
*green pepper or aubergine
* mixed salad bag or green coriander

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.  Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these delicious pea and bean dishes on our recipe page –
Allegra’s tortellini in brodo d’estiva
Hugh’s risoni with baby peas (or broad beans), bacon and garlic

Standard box members also have the first of this season’s aubergines and green peppers.

In all our boxes this week:-
*tomatoes
*broad beans
*parsley
*cucumber
*new potatoes
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*French beans (yellow or purple) OR peas OR mangetout
rosemary sprig (Janet Hulme, Wadebridge)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra new potatoes
*green pepper
*aubergine
*spinach OR calabrese

* = grown to organic principles

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

Try these delicious side dishes on our recipe page –
Lemon cashew parsley dip
Cucumber raita

This recipe is from my new book – River Cottage Light and Easy by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall.  It can be dished up as a light lunch or starter on its own or as a partner with some protein such as lentils, chickpeas, chicken or fish for something more substantial.

Serves 2, or 4 as a starter

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
For the dressing
2 Tbs no sugar added peanut butter
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp runny honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

200g young small courgette
1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs
A little extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil
1 Tbs sunflower or pumpkin seeds or a mix of the two (optional)
A small handful of basil or mint leaves

Method
To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in a bowl, adding salt and pepper as needed, bearing in mind that the nut butter will add salt.  Add 2 tablespoons water and whisk until you have a thick mixture, smooth except for any chunks of nut.  It should be loose enough to fall off the spoon in thick ribbons – you can whisk in a little more cold water, if necessary, to reach this consistency.

Top and tail the courgettes, then use a veg peeler to shave them lengthways into wafer-thin ribbons.  Put into a large bowl.  Trim the fennel, removing any tough and fibrous outer layers, saving a few of the fronds if there are any.  Slice the fennel, top to bottom, as thinly as you can, and add to the courgettes.

Trickle a little oil over the veg, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss lightly.  Scatter the seeds, if using, over the veg and spoon on the dressing.  Finish with roughly torn basil or mint leaves and fennel fronds if you have them, then serve.

AND the first of this season’s tomatoes!

In all our boxes this week:-
*broad beans
*French beans (yellow or purple) OR peas
*fennel bulb
*tomatoes
*cucumber
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
*new potatoes (CSA / Mark)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra new potatoes
*spring onions
*basil
*mixed salad bag

* = 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 –
Broad bean hummus
Crushed broad bean bruschetta

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