Braised eggs with broad beans — a Honey & Co recipe

The small town in Lazio we stayed in recently for a friend’s wedding had the undeniable charisma that even the most workaday Italian town seems to have. There were no hotels and the only restaurant hadn’t yet opened for the season, so we got ourselves a frayed but sweet rental and played at being provincial Italians for a few days.

We have long since outgrown any romantic notions we might once have held about cooking on holiday, and know now that the point of a break is exactly that, a break. Plus there is always something a bit uncomfortable about cooking in a kitchen that isn’t your own. The dread of unfamiliar pans.

Aside from a hotel and a restaurant, the town had it all — a castle, a hilltop view of a lake, a little bakery, a big church on the pretty square, a line of scrutinising nonne on every bench and, most importantly for us, a guy selling fruit and veg from the back of a battered Apa.

We got thin corkscrew courgettes, broad beans in their furry pods, new garlic, bunched herbs, taut spring onions and eggs in varying sizes and colours, all still soil-stained and warm from the spring sun. Back in our rental, we shelled the beans on the balcony with a cold glass of wine. Our simple supper came together in minutes, with very little effort, and was consumed on said balcony with a bit of fresh bread. We repeated the exact same meal on our second night and again back in London, with our farmers’ market haul. A little something we brought back from our holidays.

If you want to prepare in advance, stop before adding the eggs, then just before serving, reheat and add the eggs. Drink with a crisp Italian white — Roero Arneis is our season’s companion.

Braised eggs with broad beans, courgettes and spring onions

Serves 4 or 6-8 as part of brunch

1. In a large, deep frying pan heat the olive oil with the bundle of thyme and the crushed garlic. As soon as it all starts to sizzle, add the courgette cubes and salt, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes, shaking the frying pan occasionally until the courgettes start to fall apart.

2. Open the lid and let the steam escape, take out the little bundle of thyme and discard. Add the chopped spring onions and the peeled broad beans and mix well. If the beans are very large and have a hard skin, it is best to boil them quickly before and peel the fine membrane off before adding, but if they are small and lovely, the skins are no problem at all.

3. Add the chopped dill and the water and bring to a boil.

4. Make a little well with a spoon and drop an egg into it, repeat with the rest of the eggs and sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover and simmer for four to five minutes until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. Serve immediately with a few more dill fronds to garnish.

Follow Sarit and Itamar on Instagram @honeyandco

Follow @FTMag on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first