This is a summer dish, really, but we eat it all the year round and everyone loves it. However much you make, however many beans you use, it all seems to go at a sitting. You can use any sort of green beans. The original recipe is, I believe, from Spain and intended for those flat green beans, but we almost always make it with French beans. All the quantities are approximate. You really cannot go wrong.
Ingredients:
Green beans – say ½ lb or 250 grams
1 large onion (depends how much you like onions) chopped
2 big cloves of garlic (ditto) chopped
Olive oil
Salt
Optional: ham or bacon
Method:
Cook the beans in boiling salted water until they are just done, then immediately refresh them under the cold tap.
While they are cooking fry the onions first and then add garlic (in a pan that is big enough to take the beans as well ) in a generous amount of olive oil on a highish heat until the mixture is just beginning to scorch – and it doesn’t matter if it does.
Add the beans and that’s (nearly) it.
The secret to this dish is after you’ve added the beans and turned them all around in the oil with the charring onion, turn off the heat and then, just before serving, sprinkle some salt across the top and some sort of magic occurs. The beans can be eaten hot, or cold and are probably best lukewarm. Ham or fried bacon bits can be added to make the dish more substantial.