Butter Bean and Fennel Stew

This is a store cupboard dish with one fresh ingredient doing the work. Fennel, cooked slowly in oil until it collapses, loses the sharp aniseed note that puts people off it raw and turns sweet and almost buttery.

Give the fennel time

Twenty minutes over a low heat with the onion, covered, before anything else goes in. If it is still holding its shape it is not ready. You are looking for the point where a spoon goes through it without resistance.

Butter beans from a jar are larger, creamier and hold together better than the tinned kind, and they cost roughly twice as much. In a dish with six ingredients that difference is visible on the plate, which is not true of every upgrade.

What to serve with it

Bread, and enough of it. The liquid is thin on purpose. If you want it thicker, crush a ladle of the beans against the side of the pan rather than reaching for flour.