Green Beans To Impress - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb fresh green beans
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (or pecans)
1 ounce fresh parmesan cheese (in one piece)

Preparation

Top and tail the beans, but leave them whole.
Bring a large pot of water to boil and, when boiling, drop beans in; cook approximately eight minutes or until beans are tender-crisp (if you like your beans to be softer, by all means cook them longer).
Drain well and set aside.
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat.
Add walnuts to pan and, stirring frequently to prevent burning, cook walnuts for 2 or 3 minutes, or until they start to turn golden and are fragrant.
Add drained beans to skillet and toss gently, making sure beans get coated with butter.
Heat through for one minute, stirring gently once or twice, then turn out onto a shallow serving platter.
Shave or sliver parmesan so it is in shards (most box graters have a slicing side, and this works well), and place all parmesan slivers on top of beans and walnuts; serve immediately.
Note: if you absolutely cannot find a cheese counter where you can buy a piece of parmesan cheese, use 1/4 cup grated, but please make sure it is freshly grated; there is a huge flavour difference between fresh and the grated stuff you can buy off the shelf.