Food for Thought: fèves catalanes

20/04/2024 0 Comments
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Food for Thought with Suzanne Dunaway

Fèves catalanes

Spring is sneaking up on us, bringing fresh feves for eating raw with Pecorino or Gouda or any hard French cheese, but feves are also delicious when sautéed in olive oil along with spring’s little green onions, a few slices of crisp bacon, a little chopped mint and a splash of Rivesalte, made mainly from Grenache grapes, or any slightly sweet wine.

The salty crumbled bacon is offset by the wine and the tender feves herald in a new taste for your spring table.

I do not peel my feves so I have to admit that the feves in the photo are from Picard, peeled, and absolutely delicious for a change, even if the texture is a bit more refined that my garden feves in their skins. But to me, les feves are wonderful however they are prepared, and the frozen feves are quick addition to any main course.

Then again, I loved popping them out of their skins. It stimulates a kind of meditation on the incredible bounty we have here in the P-O.

feves food for thought

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 generous cups of raw feves, or 1 package of frozen feves, skinless or not, unthawed
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 or 2 spring green onions, sliced fine including the green tops
  • 4 slices bacon, fried crisp
  • 1 branch of fresh mint leaves, the leaves chopped fine
  • A splash of Rivesaltes Ambré

Method

feves

In a skillet heat the olive oil and sauté the green onion slices until soft. Add the feves and toss in the olive oil, lower the fire and cover for a few minutes until the feves are tender. This takes only a few minutes if you use peeled feves.

Remove the lid, add the splash of wine, the mint and the crumbled bacon and toss together.

Feves catalan

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

A slice of lemon is nice, too, over the whole dish.

You could also mix and match these feves with the sweet carrots we have in our markets for a pretty presentation.

feves

Meet the chef

P-O Life reader, Suzanne Dunaway, has cooked since she was 5 years old, when she made cinnamon pinwheels from her mother’s pastry dough.

She LOVES to cook. Some might say she LIVES to cook. The smells, the tastes, the textures…

She is a firm believer in simplicity and creates her recipes in the ethos of ‘anyone can cook’.

After years of experience in her own kitchen, cooking schools and private classes all over the world, in this weekly blog, Suzanne shares with us her PO-inspired creations.

With many strings to her bow, she is also an artist and columnist, with two published cookbooks.

Get a copy of her ‘No Need to Knead: Handmade Artisan Breads in 90 Minutes’ here  

Or her 5 star rated book ‘Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen’ here

All content and recipes are copyright of Suzanne Dunaway.

Tempted?

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