Every winter my husband and I head out to buy the best Broad Beans at ‘Franks’, our favourite little fruit and vegetable shop in Haberfield . The only problem is that all the other Broad Bean lovers in Sydney must also know that Frank sells the tenderest in town. They can run out quickly on a Saturday. We’ve missed out on more than one occasion. You can find them in other shops but the problem is that they are overgrown and tasteless. I have the same problem with fennel. I’ve seen fennel that’s almost the size of a football it so overgrown. Horrible tasteless and fibrous stuff. Now that I have a little garden, this year I finally got to plant my own Broad Beans. I planted them a couple of weeks ago and they are fast growers. They’ve just started to climb and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be picking my own.

Broad Beans were a staple in my dad’s garden. Although he only planted a few rows every year they seemed to yield a truckload. There was always a time in the season where they were so abundant that we ate them every few days. My dad picked them young when they were still tender and sweet. My mother loved eating them raw with fresh crusty bread, olives and hard cheese. We would get stuck into them at lunch time and by the end of the meal we had a huge pile of empty pods. I still eat them like this when I can get them fresh. She would also saute them with onions in olive oil and a little water. Just before they were cooked she would drop in half a dozen freshly gathered eggs and poach them in the mix. This is still one of my favourite meals. Its a very simple peasant dish but I adore it.  Its not just the flavours and textures that I love, its that it keeps me in touch with my humble peasant Sicilian background in such a basic, everyday way.