When we were at Il Frantoio (an earlier post) in Puglia, one of the dishes we were served was broad bean pate. The broadbeans had been grown on the property …and the olives for the oil, and the garlic, and the lemons. I found fresh broad beans at the James St Markets, New Farm, so I thought I would try to replicate this delicious dish.
fresh broadbeans
First, peel the broadbeans. You will need quite a lot of beans, as there isn’t much left when you discard the shells. I steamed my peeled beans for 4-5 minutes, but you could also boil them for a couple of minutes.
the second peeling
Rinse in cold water to cool the beans, then peel again. This is quite tedious, but it will be worth it.
the ingredients
Put the beans, a clove of garlic (chopped), 2 tablespoons olive oil, the juice of a lemon or lime, salt and pepper into the small bowl of a food processor. A mortar and pestle would probably give a more authentic result, but I don’t have one.
all ingredients in the food processor
process until it looks like this
I served it on top of steamed green vegetables to great effect. It was also delicious on fresh bread.
lunch
You could aso use frozen beans, which would eliminate the first peeling, but fresh beans produce an excellent result. I’m sure the Il Frantoio broad bean pate was better, but I can’t go to Puglia every day for lunch.
Great photos and recipe – yum.
By: mary D on August 23, 2010
at 7:57 am
I too have only once had this recipe when I was in Europe & I adored it, I tried to whip it up once back home from memory, but it really didn’t really come up as well as I thought 🙁 I think I’ll give it another go if I see some fresh broad bean beauties at the markets.
By: Anna Johnston on August 23, 2010
at 7:59 am
Thank you! I should be eating broad beans from my garden very soon. And this looks like a great recipe to try.
By: Bee on August 23, 2010
at 10:55 am
Yummy – Pam
By: Pamela Proctor on August 23, 2010
at 3:05 pm
to be made for appreciative people, all that peeling should not be wasted on junk food people!
By: Roz MacAllan on August 23, 2010
at 11:28 pm
This is great – I’ll be sure to save this recipe!
By: toscanaturid on August 24, 2010
at 12:01 pm
I really like broad beans but it’s amazing when you ;s amazing how few broad bean recipes there are out there. You don’t often see them in cookbooks!
By: Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella on August 24, 2010
at 12:05 pm
I love this dish. Our beans are only available in the springtime, so I’ll have to wait for next year.
By: janie on August 25, 2010
at 12:12 am
Now we have another way to eat this gorgeous spring vegetable, Portuguese style with chorizo sausage – a dear friend gave me a book on Portuguese cooking and Deb and I with our husbands had a gorgeous side of broad beans ala Portuguese!!!
By: lizlitzow on August 28, 2010
at 1:22 pm
[…] share for ages. When my broad beans are ready they will most definitely be used to make this: Puglia style broad bean spread @ Debra & Liz’s Bagni du Lucca […]
By: Randomness | Tales from a Well-Stocked Larder on September 30, 2010
at 11:13 am