Pasta with Pancetta and Broad Beans

Early dinner this evening so that we can take advantage of the last of the sun in the park.  We saw these tennis racquet pasta shapes in our local deli recently and thought they would be fun to eat during Wimbledon fortnight.  The dish itself was a little claggy from the cream and would have perhaps been better with oil instead.

Fry off the pancetta until the fat has rendered, add some chopped sage and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add a generous splash of white wine and let it cook down until almost reduced right down.  Add some cream, stirring to pick up the flavours in the pan and then add cooked broad beans before finishing with lemon juice and a good grind of black pepper.

We’re taking the Pimms and the exceptionally tasty strawberries that the lovely people of Good Natured sent to us yesterday to the park now.  We put some of the strawberries into the Pimms, but that did seem a bit of a crime as they were so good on their own – soft and juicy and tasted just like strawberries should, rather than the hard and tasteless ones that supermarkets often sell for “half price”.

Wimbledon, Pimms and strawberries and cream; I think this means summer is finally here!