Green beans dressed in breadcrumbs

SERVES 4-6

“Fagiolini sfiziosi, or fagiulini spilusieddi in dialect, can be translated as beans that are either appetising, satiating, frivolous or fanciful – or perhaps all of these things,” says Davies. “I came across this simple dish bursting with fresh flavours during my very first visit to Puglia one early summer. As we drove from one end of Puglia to the other, I was enthralled at the sight of field after field of luscious vegetable patches growing in deep-red soil. This is a great dish for a barbecue; you can make it in advance and, when the flavours have had time to get to know each other, it’s all the better for it.”

400 gm green beans

60 ml (¼ cup) olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

4 spring onions, white part only, thinly sliced

20 gm dried coarse breadcrumbs

½ cup (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley, chopped

½ cup (loosely packed) mint, chopped or torn

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Rinse, dry and cut off the tops of the beans (if they are very long, you can cut them in half too). Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the beans for a few minutes, or until they are still bright green and with a slight bite to them. In the meantime, prepare a bowl full of iced water. Drain the beans, then immediately transfer them to the iced water to cool them down quickly and stop the cooking process. Dry on clean tea towels.

2 Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan over a low-medium heat and cook the sliced spring onions until softened and slightly golden (about 1 minute). Add the breadcrumbs, season to taste, and continue cooking for a few minutes or until the crumbs are golden and crisp, then remove from the heat.

3 Toss together the drained beans, the breadcrumb mixture, herbs, lemon juice and an extra drizzle of oil in a bowl. You can serve this immediately, but I also like it at room temperature. ●