Runner Bean Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette

August, and the runner beans have taken over. They do this every year. You plant four seeds in May, thinking that seems reasonable, and by midsummer you've got a wall of green and more beans than you know what to do with. The neighbours start avoiding eye contact because you've already left a bag on their doorstep twice this week.

This is the salad that makes sense of the glut. Beans sliced on the diagonal, blanched in properly saltedwater until they're tender but still have something to say, then dressed while warm with a vinaigrette sharp enough to cut through their sweetness. The shallots sit in vinegar first, losing their rawness and turning pink. The mustard holds the dressing together. The whole thing takes twenty minutes and tastes like the garden.

I make this more than any other salad between July and September. It goes next to a piece of grilled lamb, beside a few slices of good ham, or on its own with bread and butter when it's too warm to cook anything more. I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: beans, shallots, vinegar, Tuesday. The recipe hasn't changed since, because it doesn't need to.

We're only making dinner. But dinner, when the beans are this good and the evening is still light at eight o'clock, can be a quietly splendid thing.