Directions

Line a tray with a clean kitchen cloth or paper towels.

2. Snap the stem ends off the green beans. Bring a very large pot of water to a boil. Green vegetables keep their color when blanching if the water comes back to a boil rather quickly. This can be achieved by blanching in copious amounts of heavily salted water and by cooking in smaller batches rather than adding all the vegetables to the pot at the same time.

3. When the pot comes to a boil, add the salt. Start with2 tablespoons of salt. The water should taste like salty sea water.

4. Add half the beans to the boiling water and cook for 2 ½ to 3 minutes only. Use a slotted spoon and remove beans to paper/cloth-lined tray. Repeat procedure with rest of the beans. Many recipes will instruct you to immerse the blanched beans into an ice-bath after blanching. I do not do this for this small amount of beans. Just spread the beans out in one layer on the tray.

5. If not finishing the dish immediately, wrap the beans in dry cloth or towels and refrigerate.

6. Split the piece of baguette in half lengthwise. Rub the cut sides with some olive oil, lightly salt and either grill or sauté the pieces to get some color and crunch. Some char is good—think how good toast tastes with a bit of char on it. Let the toast cool and tear it into chunks. Chop the chunks into coarse crumbs by hand with a chef’s knife or pulse in a food processor.

7. Remove the leaves from the herb stems and chop by hand. Combine the herbs and measure ½ cup. Combine the herbs with ½ cup breadcrumbs. Grate ½ lemon with a microplane or box grater and combine with the breadcrumb-herb mixture.

Assembly:

1. Heat a sauté pan, large enough to hold all the beans, on low heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons butter to the pan. When the butter has melted, quickly add the beans and continually toss with a pair of tongs to coat and heat through. Add more olive oil and/or butter if necessary. Taste. Adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Add ½ of the herb-lemon rind-breadcrumb mixture to the beans and toss to combine. Platter the beans and sprinkle with the other ½ cup of the crumb-herb mix. Bring rest of breadcrumbs to the table. Some of your guests may enjoy more crunch with their beans.