Lentils with Peas and Pancetta
This is a favourite dish of mine. Simple, tasty, filling, quick and a good accompaniment to meat
dishes. Canned peas actually work better for this dish than fresh, just as canned tomatoes
sometimes work better than fresh for certain sauces. A stock cube also works well because it’s
quite salty and, along with the pancetta or bacon, will really lift the lentils and give them a good
flavour. If you’ve got some good home-made stock though, use that, and adjust the seasoning
accordingly as it won’t be as salty as a dado (stock cube). Serves 4
Ingredients:
olive oil
100 g pancetta, speck or smoked bacon, roughly cut
into strips
1 medium onion (Ramata di Milano), chopped
2 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
500 g lentils, soaked if necessary
400 ml stock, made from a stock cube
1 can peas
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Add a slosh of olive oil to a frying pan and start to pan-fry the pancetta or bacon for a minute
over a medium heat before adding the onion and the garlic to soften. Don’t overcrowd the pan
with the bacon as all the juices will come out and you’ll be boiling it instead of frying it – we
want the bacon to impart its wonderful flavour to the oil.
When the onion has softened, add the lentils and the stock and reduce to a simmer. Cover
and cook the lentils for the amount of time indicated on the package, stirring occasionally but
not too vigorously as you don’t want to squash them. Don’t be scared of adding more water,
especially towards the end of cooking.
Check the seasoning. The pancetta will be salty, but do make sure the dish is properly
seasoned with salt and pepper. When ready, the lentils should have soaked up the liquid but
should still be moist and loose, not dry and sticky. Stir in the peas and quickly heat through. As
you serve them, add a filo (drizzle) of good olive oil.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster