Spring vegetable salad with a mortar-and-pestle vinaigrette

Bring a pot of water to a simmer with a good amount of salt.

Pop the fava pods open sideways and remove the beans, leaving them in their individual skins.

Shell the English peas: break off the top, pull the string down one side, split open and run a thumb down the pod.

Peel the asparagus if woody and snap off the base.

Blanch the fava beans in the simmering water for one to two minutes, then fish them out.

Blanch the peas in boiling water; after about a minute, add the asparagus cut on the bias for about another minute, then remove both together.

Variation: blanched peas keep five or six days in the fridge; reheat by sauteing with butter and stock.

Cool the vegetables spread in a single layer on a baking sheet, or ice them down if cooking a lot or serving cold.

Slice the asparagus on a sharp bias for the salad.

Squeeze the fava beans out of their skins.

In a mortar, pound the smashed garlic with salt so there are no big chunks; add the shallot.

Add a squeeze of lemon, Dijon mustard and olive oil and work in the mortar until emulsified; add a little lemon zest.

Dress the Bibb lettuce and pile it up; serve the vegetables with it and the rest of the dressing on the side.