Broad Bean, Pea and Lemon Spaghetti

This is another recipe from The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Ella. After the success of last week’s broad bean dish, we were keen to try something else that had been recommended to us from the same book, even if it did mean yet more bean shelling. The original recipe included asparagus which we left out since the season is over, we also used creme fraiche instead of the suggested double cream.

We both enjoyed this but weren’t as excited by it as we were the braised broad beans; I think I should have used more basil and lemon. As ever, bacon would have been a really good addition too.

Serves Two

150ml creme fraiche
Juice and zest of one lemon
450g fresh broad beans, podded
200g spaghetti
450g fresh peas, podded
2 tablespoons mascarpone
40g Parmesan cheese, grated
Small bunch of basil, torn
Salt and black pepper

Start by putting the pasta on to cook. At the same time, cook the broad beans until tender, remove from the heat, rinse in cold water and remove the outer skins.

About five minutes before the pasta is cooked, take a separate pan and add the creme fraiche and lemon zest, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for three minutes.

At the same time, cook the peas until tender. Drain and add to the broad beans.

Drain the pasta, reserving some of the water and return to the pan. Add the lemon juice and seasoning. Next add the creme fraiche, the mascapone, the parmesan and stir together. Finally, add the vegetables and the basil, stir until incorporated and serve.

I found the timings quite difficult, the original method was written for fresh pasta and suggested cooking the vegetables in the same water as the pasta. I didn’t have fresh pasta though which is why I worked it out as above. I’m not sure how Maria Ella’s version would have worked with broad beans though anyway, since the double podding takes a while and would mean everything else would be going cold while you were shelling beans. Unless you can double pod before cooking but I tried this and made a mess.