Habitas con jamón - baby broad beans with ham

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I was at the greengrocer's on the rue de Bretagne yesterday to buy more asparagus, when I saw they now also had baby broad beans. So after last night's baked asparagus, tonight's starter will be habitas con jamón, beans with ham, another springtime treat I can't get enough of.

I sometimes wonder when and how people realised some foods have particular affinities with each other. When I was a child, in England, we occasionally had broad beans with bacon. The bacon fat was poured over the beans. Those were inch-long beans, boiled. I first had the Spanish version, habitas con jamón in a back-street family tavern in Sitges. Since then, any time I see it on a Spanish menu I have it.

There's even less to this than to baking asparagus. As usual with very simple recipes, the better the produce you use, the better the result will be. I envy anyone who has broad beans in the garden. But I like habitas con jamón so much I'll do them with whatever I can get my hands on, which sometimes means ready-shelled beans and supermarket serrano. Anyway...

Heat some olive oil in a broad pan and soften some crushed garlic in it. People more patient than I am remove the garlic from the oil before cooking the beans. I just add the beans and let them sizzle gently, then add pata negra, assuming I can get it, cut into strips. (Anyone who thinks frying pata negra is needlessly extravagant should read Elizabeth David's reply to people who think the same about using cream in gratin dauphinois.) Some recipes say the ham should be cooked crisp. I prefer not. By the way, if you can get ham with some fat on it, tant mieux.

That's it. I might be tempted to add some sage, as I have it growing on the balcony and like it a lot, but I doubt anyone in Spain would do that. What they would do and do do is add fried eggs: fantastic.

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