Broad bean leaves, excellent risotto, Ronaldinho and Pepsi
Abundance: Tues 21 May 2024
Twenty years ago, when the world seemed less bananas, I took a familiar favourite route through Worth Matravers1 towards the coast and the almost perfect circle of Chapman’s Pool. Somewhere between the two, the path crossed the only field of broad beans in flower I’ve ever seen.
The sun, unusually hot and hard so early, lifted their scent into the air. It was a perfect moment. Everything made sense. If I hadn’t been so regrettably English, I might’ve laid down on the soil and lost myself to it completely. Instead, I knelt, pushed my face close to their everyday, remarkable blossom, and took in all I could.
Every May, when it is still and the morning shifting sharply from chilly to hot, I kneel by the few plants in the garden and get a glimpse of that morning, as sure as a sip of Lucozade transports me to the poor timing of being half term ill.
Recipe for Broad bean leaf and lemon risotto, and more, below