If you live with an Italian you will soon come across their obsession with all things beans, especially the beautiful red borlotti and the big, fat, green fava (aka broad beans). Several years ago, Moza tried introducing us to the pleasures of fava, but alas, the beans were less than special. The lesson? Freshly-grown is best.
So, one of the first winter crops we planted this year were several rows of fava beans. After a somewhat slow start, they were soon powering along and we ended up with quite the crop (a glut you could say!).
Having prepared them most nights simply dressed with EV oil, salt and pepper we decided to become more adventurous and made the following dishes which were really easy and tasty:
And not to mention, our piece de résistance – Giorgio Locatelli’s Pappardelle with broad beans and rocket. Took us a few hours, many utensils and mess but was well worth it as the flavour was amazing, really bringing out the colour and different textures of the beans. The fresh pappardelle Moza made was a wonderful addition and his best homemade pasta yet!
These were great ways to use our abundant produce, and we’ve now frozen a couple of kilos to use again and again over this Spring / Summer.
Now, onto to planting our next crop of borlotti beans – more on those to come!
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