Polish Runner Beans with Browned Butter Breadcrumbs

Prepare the beans. Trim the ends off the beans and cut each one in half. Young beans straight off the plant need nothing more. Shop-bought runner beans are usually older and thicker, so run a peeler or a knife down both seams to strip the strings first, and if the pods are really broad, slice them on the diagonal instead of halving them.

Boil them in well-salted water. Bring the water to a rolling boil in a large pot, add the salt, then tip in the beans. Keep it at a steady boil, uncovered, and start testing at 6 minutes. Depending on how young and how thick they are they will take anywhere from 6 to 12 minutes.

Test by biting one. Time is not reliable here, so lift one out and bite it. It should be tender the whole way through with a little give left, not squeaky and raw in the middle and not soft enough to collapse. Overcooked beans lose their colour and go floppy, and there is no coming back from that.

Drain and rinse. Drain the beans in a colander and give them a very quick rinse under cold running water, just enough to stop them cooking in their own heat. Leave them to drain properly, because water clinging to the beans is what turns crisp breadcrumbs soggy.

Brown the butter and breadcrumbs. Melt the butter in a wide frying pan over a medium-low heat, then stir in the breadcrumbs. Keep stirring for 2 to 4 minutes until they are an even deep gold and smell nutty. Do not walk away: they go from pale to golden to burnt very quickly, and the butter is browning underneath them at the same time.

Season, toss and serve. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the Vegeta and the black pepper, then add the drained beans and turn them over until every one is coated. Serve straight away, while the crumbs are still crisp.