I have been feeling enervated and I mostly blame the weather. It has been truly unpleasant. Gloomy and damp with an headache inducing, foreboding humidity - air pregnant with the rain. And when the rain finally arrived on Sunday night, it RAINED. Proper cloudburst stuff which went on for hours. The drains overflowing, gardens and allotments flooded, banks bursting kind of rain. Yesterday morning the canal was almost unrecognisable. Tow paths vanished, weir unrecognisable, barges submerged. And still too warm.
Sapped of energy and a bit stressed I got to early evening and I did not feel like cooking. I ended up doing so almost by stealth - one of those little self-cons we go through to lead ourselves into doing something we know should do. “Can’t be bothered. I want to sit on the sofa and drink a G&T with salt and vinegar crisps.” So then I make myself open the fridge. “Maybe just a cheese omelette. Oh, but I’ve all these greens. Maybe just greens then. I could eat a big bowl of greens. But Adam and Shariq will want more… if I’m going to cook the greens then maybe I should do the anchovy/garlic/lemon thing. But I’ve got all these lovely garlicky sausages. Maybe I should use crumbled up sausagemeat instead of the anchovies? If I’m doing that I may as well add leeks too. Oh, and look, there’s this squash that I was saving for stuffing, but that will make it feel proper autumnal….” And before I know it I’ve thrown together a braise and it’s taken 5 minutes.
I do this with writing too, by the way. Sometimes, when I have had a run of doing little other than recipe development and testing, and the writing up isn’t exactly arduous, I get out of the habit of writing proper prose and it is so hard to get back into the flow again. I often feel as though I am stumbling over every word, nothing comes out on the page in the way it sounds in my head. It is too easy to get frustrated and delay getting back into it but that is fatal. So I con myself in the same way. “Open the laptop. You don’t have to start writing, just set up a document. Hmm, maybe a title. Do I have a title? OK, bullet points. You may as well try to write something now you’re here. Just 20 minutes, maybe half an hour. Write anything, doesn’t matter what.” And then it is 3 hours later and even if I delete most of it, I keep at it, doing the same con over and over and eventually find myself where I need to be.
Back to dinner. I used cime di rapa (also known as rapini or broccoli rabe) which I buy from Ealing Grocers and isn’t very widely available, but use whatever greens you like. Cime di rapa is one of those greens maybe best avoided or cooked separately if you are feeding a young family because children tend not to like its bitterness. Adam, at the age of 14, is coming round to bitter greens, and while he doesn’t love them, will now eat them with only the smallest of complaints. I feel we’re getting there and this pleases me because they are good for us. But you can substitute with any greens you like. Any of the kales, chard, spinach, cabbage…we’re not far away from the first sprout tops either and I can’t wait.
I also used fresh borlotti beans, also from Ealing Grocers. But you can use ready cooked beans instead, you just don’t need the same cook time. The other thing to say about this meal is that it is meat lite. This is something I do a lot - meat is there, but it is mainly for flavouring.
Fresh Borlotti Beans with Sausagemeat, Leeks and Squash
This was just enough for 4 people - not massive portions, but you can increase the beans if need be or just have some bread on the side. You will want to mop the bowls clean.
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red or white onion, finely chopped
4 large sausages, skinned and crumbled
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200g fresh borlotti beans, or 250g cooked beans
A large sprig thyme
A few sage leaves, finely chopped, or 1/2 tsp dried sage
100ml white wine
200ml stock or water
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 onion squash or similar, peeled and cut into chunks
3 leeks, cut into chunks
A large bunch cime di rapa or other greens, washed and roughly chopped
2 tbsp creme fraiche
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Catherine is under pressure to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.