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The Recipe:
Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a shallow-sided pan. Fry a peeled, crushed clove of garlic for a minute or so till fragrant, then stir in a teaspoon of cumin seed. Chop 500g of fresh tomatoes and add them to the pan. As the tomato simmers, stir in a teaspoon of mild or hot chilli powder, a half-teaspoon of ground turmeric and a generous seasoning of salt.
Pod 500g of broad beans, then cook them briefly in boiling water. If they are large, squeeze them from their thin, papery skins. Let the tomatoes and spices cook for 15-20 minutes or so, until you have a soft, sauce-like texture and much spicy juice. Roughly chop about 350g of summer squash or courgettes and add them to the pan. As the squash starts to soften, slice 150g sugar snaps and stir them in, together with the skinned, cooked broad beans. Add a couple of handfuls of peas (frozen are fine). Continue cooking till the peas are approaching tenderness.
Five minutes before serving, add 150g of cherry tomatoes, halved, and let them soften but not lose their shape. Check the seasoning – it should be quite spicy – and serve. Enough for 2.
The trick:
Once the tomato and garlic sauce is simmering, take care not to cook the green vegetables for too long. They should be crisp and bright to contrast with the softness of the tomato sauce. At this point in the season, broad beans tend to be toughening up a little, so unless they are very small, boil them for a good 4 or 5 minutes, then pop them from their skins while the tomato sauce simmers.
The twist:
The contrast of crisp, fresh green vegetables and soft, spicy tomatoes is the point of this dish, so avoid the temptation to add spinach or leafy greens. Fennel, finely sliced, and broccoli or artichoke hearts will work neatly instead of or as well as the peas and beans. This is a good recipe for using up your squash, not just the green summer variety but butternut and pumpkin, too. Use what you have around. Some suggestions from this week share: try Eggplant!
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