The recipe
Bring a pan of deep, lightly salted water to the boil. Add 200g of broad beans (shelled weight) and let them boil for 4-5 minutes until tender. The exact timing will depend on their size. Drain them, then pop the beans from their pale, papery skins by squeezing them between your finger and thumb. Set aside.
Peel and finely slice 2 cloves of garlic. Finely slice 1 large red chilli. You can remove the seeds if you wish. Slice 125g of padrón peppers in half and remove and discard their seeds and core. Warm 3 tbsp of olive oil in a shallow pan, then add the padrón peppers and cover with a lid. Turn the peppers every few minutes with kitchen tongs until they have collapsed and coloured lightly here and there
While the peppers cook, bring a pan of boiling water to the boil and salt it generously. Add 250g of small curls or twists of pasta and cook according to the instructions on the packet (probably about 9 minutes). Chop 20g of parsley. Drain the pasta then return it to the pan.
Add the chilli and garlic to the oil, leaving the peppers in place, and let everything sizzle for 2 or 3 minutes, watching closely, until the garlic is deep golden brown. Remove the mixture from the heat, stir in the broad beans and the parsley. Check the seasoning then stir it into the pasta, and serve. Enough for 2
The trick
It is difficult to gauge the exact weight of beans you will get once they are podded. To get 200g of young, beautiful little beans we bought 1kg of pods. Unless they are very small, it is always worth popping the beans from their papery skins after boiling.
The twist
You could dispense with the rigours of podding, boiling and skinning the beans by using bottled or canned butter beans. Add them to the peppers and let them heat through before introducing the parsley.
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