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Lentils alla Veneto
Lentils did not feature in my childhood – the nearest I got to eating a pulse was Heinz Baked Beans (I am almost entirely formed out of Heinz Baked Beans) – so I first came across them in my early twenties when I was studying at an opera studio in the Veneto.
The thing that I remember most about that first encounter, was the kindness with which they were brought to my table. I was having supper at the little pensione I was staying in after an intense day on the diva-battlefield, and the owner, having decided I looked a bit tired, brought me a dish of lentils. They would do me good, she said; at least that’s what I thought she said. She said it at length – standing over me to make sure I ate them – but it was in the days before my Italian was up to understanding anything at length, so I had no idea what it was they contained that would restore me to health.*
I don’t know exactly how she had cooked them, but she had probably done something like this – although this is almost certainly a lower calorie dense version, and I have added my usual whole spices to the lentils as they boil.
*Had I been able to understand her, she was probably telling me that they were packed full of B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and iron. She might have told me that they were full of fibre, but not how good they were for the microbiome because nobody had heard of it back then.
For the lentils
- 250g (dry weight) very small lentils
- A pinch each of peppercorns, coriander seeds, and cardamom seeds (de-husked)
- Salt
For the soffritto:
- 1 small red onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 sticks of celery
- 4 cloves of garlic
- A few sprigs of thyme
- 4 teaspoons / 20 ml olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Chilli – optional, and quantity depends on how hot you want to make it
For the mustard dressing*
- 3 tablespoons / 45ml olive oil
- 3 tablespoons / 45ml balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of grainy mustard
- 1 teaspoon of honey
- Salt and pepper
For the lentils
- Cook the lentils with the whole spices and a really good pinch of salt for 30 minutes or so.
- Drain and add more salt if necessary.
For the soffritto
- Very finely dice all the vegetables and mix in a bowl with some salt and 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
- If the thyme has woody stems, strip the leaves off – a fiddly job so use a skivvy if you have one to hand – and add to the diced vegetables.
- Heat the remaining oil in a sauté or chef’s pan. You don’t want it too hot – just warm enough to let the soffritto know it’s about to get cooked. Tip it in and cook at a low temperature with the lid on till it starts to soften. Then take the lid off and continue cooking till it’s a tiny bit brown and fully cooked.
For the dressing:
- Put the honey, mustard and a pinch of salt in a jar; stir them up together, then add the oil and vinegar. Put the lid on the jar and give it a good shaking.
Putting it all together:
Add everything together and pour over a couple of tablespoons of the dressing; mix really well and serve. You can eat it hot or cold.
Diva notes.
Dicing the Vegetables
They need to be very finely diced, which takes time and can be tricky to get them uniformly fine. However, if you chuck them in the food processor and pulse them until they are fine enough, it takes about 5 seconds.
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