This is a beautiful, summery dish which we ate at Polpo last week, raved about, then lo & behold was featured in the Times magazine on Sunday – perfect timing! I thought I’d share it not only because it’s so invigorating to look at, but also because it’s delicious and a lovely thing to make on a sunny afternoon.
The given recipe was very simple but I did about 3 times the amount to properly feed me & a very greedy him.
I used sourdough from Sainsbury’s, a Paul Rankin branded one which was great but kinda heavy after two slices. Next time I make it, I think I’ll cut ciabatta longways into thinnish slices and oven crisp them in olive oil first for a lighter way of serving. I’ve also amended the given recipe from 5 mins blanching to 3, as next time I want mine more al dente.
RECIPE
2 thick slices of sourdough or soda bread. Or a lighter alternative, oven crisped ciabatta A good handful of podded broad beans – a good guesstimate for this is two – three broad bean pods per average slice of bread, with each pod containing approx seven beans. 3tbsp fresh ricotta 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil – this must be good quality oil or it will taste yukky½ clove of garlic
The zest of one lemon and a little juice
10 mint leaves, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
Blanch the broad beans in boiling water for 3 minutes, remove and plunge into cold water. Then drain and skin them. Place in a small bowl and dress them in the olive oil, lemon zest, a little lemon juice, most of the mint, salt and pepper.
Toast or grill the slices of bread so that they are crunchy on the outside but still have some give inside when squeezed. Rub one side of each slice with the cut side of the garlic., just giving a hint of seeped in flavour.
Spread the fresh ricotta, with salt and pepper added to taste, on to the hot bread. Top with the broad beans and garnish with the remaining chopped mint.
I’ve tried this with ciabatta as you suggested and also added crisp dry cured streaky bacon rashers for my husband who is the consummate carnivore and we both loved it.
The bacon sounds delicious with it, an addition for the meat lovers 🙂