French beans with tomatoes

Yield: 4 servings

Tender green beans and garlicky tomatoes can be served as part of an al fresco spread, or with the meats at a barbecue, but even on its own with a good hunk of bread it’s a lovely supper or lunch dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon rapeseed or olive oil; I used rapeseed oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 400 gram tin of chopped tomatoes, or 1 kg fresh tomatoes, blanched, skinned, deseeded and roughly chopped; I was lazy and skipped the deseeding step
• 500 grams French beans, topped, tailed and cut into 4 – 5 cm lengths
• sea salt
• black pepper, freshly ground

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or frying pan, add the onion and sweat for at least 10 minutes, until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic and cook gently for another minute or two, then add the tomatoes and stir well. Stir in the beans, bring the mixture to a gentle simmer and season well. Turn down the heat, partly cover the pan and cook very gently, stirring frequently, for about 30 minutes until the beans are fully tender. If the mixture seems to be in danger of sticking, add a splash of water or stock. Serve warm or cold.

VARIATION: This could also made with runner beans. String and slice them lengthways through one of those clever little ‘zip’ cutters, or string and slice diagonally before proceeding as above.

total time: 1 hour
preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking/baking time: 40 minutes