Ten days in Paris.

A good dinner party menu, Paris recommendations and a recipe for borlotti beans poached in parmesan broth

It is early summer where I am at the moment. Produce is ripe and plump. I can smell the scent of the figs forming on the trees around me in Sifnos, Greece.

I am not in Europe to escape the Melbourne cold. I love winter produce - dark greens dragged through chilli, garlic and peppery olive oil, beans cooked in vegetable broth, fennel and onions braised with lamb and white wine. But the arrival of summer produce always provides a unique thrill, and the base for a good dinner party menu. We get excited to grill outside with friends, to browse the markets, to make food by the beach with people we love. Perhaps it is because the weather is good again and the stone fruits and tomatoes are new and somewhat novel.

Zélikha of studio Caro Diario and I met at the coffee shop by her apartment and together we created a menu based on the summer vegetables in season in Paris. It is always a pleasurable moment meeting people while you are away that you connect with. Interesting and unpretentious, that you feel you can learn from and collaborate with. Zélikha is one of these people. The way she balanced prepping in the kitchen while planning multiple pop-ups reminded me of a less chaotic version of myself. I was taking notes.

The menu we cooked was simple, as we only had a few hours to get it all together. Post coffee, an average croissant and shopping, the rest of our afternoon was spent in her kitchen overlooking the neighbourhood of Montemarte.

On the stove I cooked summer tomatoes, shallots and garlic in rendered guanciale fat. We would later emulsify this sauce with spaghetti and parmesan. We picked fresh borlotti from their pods and poached them with the rinds of the parmesan, fresh bay leaves, thyme, onions and leeks. The house smelled like summer and charred red peppers, that had been blistered on the stove, peeled and left to rest in wine vinegars and basil. We invited mutual and new friends over around eight in the evening to eat and drink. I walked home just after 1am feeling full and tipsy off that good feeling you are steeped in after cooking and eating with beautiful people.

A few of the spots in Paris where I loved to eat at, drink in and read in:

Restaurants

• L’Orillon for the energy, good wine and beautiful plates

• Localino for the pasta

• Mehmet for the kebab and chicken wings

• Billili for the good produce and interesting menu

• Chez Omar for the couscous and merguez

• Le Paris Seize for the fun, classic spot

• Le Cheval d’Or for the consommé and everything on the menu

• 19 Saint Roch for the duck and the delicate details

Pastries

• Mamiche for the sandwiches and the beignets

• Atelier P1 for the pan au chocolat and the bread

Wine bar and snacks

• Septime La Cave

• Delicatessen Place

• La Buvette

• Centre Culturel

Parks

• Square Suzanne Buisson

• The Eiffel tower - cool spot ;)

The menu we cooked the other night is below. Regardless of the season it is a good base for your own dinner party. Fresh tomatoes can be swapped out with very good quality whole peeled tinned tomatoes. You can use dried borlotti if fresh are hard to come by. If I couldn’t find artichokes I was planning to slice zucchinis into coins and fry them to serve with shaved bottarga instead. You could do the same.

The recipe for the borlotti beans poached in parmesan broth is written below and is from my cookbook. You can also find some of the other dishes we made within the pages of my cookbook. You can purchase it here. For ease, we served everything (besides the cheese) at the same time. If you are having people over for a sit down meal I would structure the meal like this:

24th of June-

Cheese, baguette and wine

-

Charred, marinated peppers, tuna belly

Borlotti beans poached in parmesan broth, mozzarella, salsa verde

Confit artichoke, bottarga

Green and yellow string beans, lemon, merguez

-

Spaghetti, guanciale, shallots, summer tomatoes, parmigiano

Soft lettuce salad, peas, zucchini, tarragon vinaigrette

-

Buckwheat infused gelato by Zélikha

Strawberries

__

Borlotti beans poached in parmesan broth, mozzarella, salsa verde

Serves 4

Broth

2 onions

1 leek, white part only (but save the tops)

1 celery stalk

200 g (7 oz) button mushrooms

2 tablespoons olive oil

40 g (11/2 oz) unsalted butter

1/2 garlic bulb (slice a bulb in half horizontally)

125 ml (4 fl oz/1/2 cup) white wine

about 4 parmesan rinds saved from your parmesan wedges

generous glug of olive oil

2 litres (68 fl oz/8 cups) water

3 thyme sprigs 

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon peppercorns

Beans

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) fresh borlotti beans in their shells, weighing 200 g (7 oz) when podded (if you can’t find fresh borlotti use dried beans but make sure to soak them in water overnight before continuing with the recipe)

1/2 garlic bulb (slice a bulb in half horizontally)

1 tomato, sliced in half

1/2 red chilli

3 oregano sprigs 

60 ml (2 fl oz/1/4 cup) olive oil

Salsa verde

1/2 bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

1 tarragon sprig 

1/2 oregano sprig 

2 teaspoons capers, rinsed and squeezed dry

1 garlic clove

2 tablespoons lemon juice or 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

60 ml (2 fl oz/1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil

—

To make the broth

Chop the vegetables into a rough, small dice. 

Over a medium heat, melt the butter and oil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or stockpot. Add the onion, leek, celery, mushrooms and garlic and stir. Cook the vegetables for about 20 minutes, until they are golden brown and smell delicious. Season with salt and pepper.

Splash in the white wine and leave it to bubble up and cook off for 2 minutes. 

Add the parmesan rinds and a generous glug of olive oil to the pot. Cover the rinds and vegetables with the 2 litres (68 fl oz/8 cups) of water. Add the thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat a little, cover slightly and leave the broth to simmer gently for about an hour and a half, by which time it should have a deep savoury taste.

To cook the beans

Strain the stock and clean the pot. Put the clear broth back into the pot. Pick the borlotti beans from their pods and put them in the broth along with the garlic, tomato, chilli, oregano, olive oil and season with salt and a few grinds of black pepper (the soup should taste well seasoned to penetrate the beans as they cook). Simmer for 30–40 minutes, or until the beans are tender but not mushy. 

To make the salsa verde

Pick, wash and then dry the herbs. Roughly chop the capers. Mash the garlic with flaky salt, then mix with the herbs, capers, lemon juice and olive oil in a bowl. Season with flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

At this point you could serve the broth in bowls, with a ladle full of borlotti beans and a confident drop of salsa verde on top. Or you can strain the beans and marinate them to serve with mozzarella as I did for dinner the other night. 

To marinate the beans and serve

200 g (7 oz) cooked borlotti beans, and 60 ml (2 fl oz/1/4 cup) of the cooking broth

white-wine vinegar

2 garlic cloves, skin off and smashed with the back of a knife

good quality extra-virgin olive oil

flaky salt

herbs such as oregano or basil (optional)

a ball or two of mozzarella 

salsa verde 

Put the cooked beans and broth in a bowl and add the vinegar, garlic, a big glug of olive oil and a generous pinch of flaky salt, as well as any herbs, if using. Toss everything together and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. 

Spoon the beans on a plate, tear the ball of mozzarella in half and nestle it beside the beans. Drop a big spoonful of salsa verde over the top of the beams. Pour over some good extra-virgin olive oil and season with flaky salt.

Purchase my cookbook, Ellie’s Table at this link.