Habitas con jamón - baby broad beans with ham
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, w...