Fava Bean

For this flavorful Egyptian dip, buy the split fava beans which are sold with their brown skins removed and look creamy white.

This aromatic herby couscous with young tender vegetables and no meat makes a lovely main dish. Vegetarians will love it. Use fresh young fava beans and peas (some supermarkets sell them already shelled) or frozen petits pois.

Bessara is the name of the soup as well as a creamy paste, made in the same way but with less water (see Variation). You can buy the split and skinless dried fava beans in Asian and Middle Eastern stores. They look creamy white without their dried brown skins.

I am lucky enough to find freshly shelled fava beans and peas at my local supermarket. If you grow your own, or have a source of really young vegetables, use them, but it is better to use frozen petits pois and fava beans rather than old fresh ones.

I use the frozen artichoke bottoms obtainable from Middle Eastern and Asian grocers, who also sometimes sell frozen skinned fava beans. Some supermarkets sell freshly shelled fava beans. You do not need to remove the skins if they are young. If you wish to use fresh artichokes, see page 8.

A technique I have always liked, when preparing vegetables for a pasta dish, is to toss them in the pot with the pasta as it boils. Depending on which takes longer, I put the vegetable in first and then add the pasta, or vice versa. Either way, I believe this maximizes the flavor and nutritional value of the vegetables, and I know the pasta absorbs some of the vegetable flavor as they cook in the same water. I was glad to see this technique used frequently in preparing pasta dishes in Calabria, like this one, where orecchiette and arugula are cooked in the pot together before they are tossed with the other dressing vegetables, favas, and cherry tomatoes. Great to make in spring when fresh favas are in the market.

The trio of seasonal vegetables here lends a distinctive flavor and texture to this skillet-cooked vegetable dish. Crisp and soft at the same time, it is a deluxe version of home fries, with the artichokes and favas adding color and excitement to the familiar flavor of pan-fried potatoes. It’s a great dinner vegetable dish, as well as a terrific accompaniment to eggs at a springtime breakfast or brunch. (If you are watching your carbs, omit the potatoes and increase the amounts of other vegetables by half.)

In this dish, the cavatelli are dressed with a sauce of fresh fava beans, always a great treat in season. Another special ingredient here is ricotta salata, or salted ricotta, a marvelous product made from fresh sheep’s-milk ricotta that is pressed, dried, and aged for a few months, until fairly firm, retaining the mild, milky taste of fresh ricotta yet with more complexity. It is a traditional accompaniment to fresh favas—a delicious pairing you will taste here—but ricotta salata is a great final seasoning on many other pastas as well. As I instruct in this recipe, ricotta salata is best grated on top of the pasta just before you serve it. Put a chunk of it on the table with the grater, and let people shower on more ricotta salata as they dig deeper into their bowls.

Local island vegetables are used in this colorful dish offered at Jake's in Jamaica. Serve with brown rice or as a side dish with fish or chicken.

This countrified soup is often served in late March for Nowruz, the Persian new year. With beans, vegetables, noodles, and yogurt, it is a meal in itself. If you can't find fava beans, use limas. Start this recipe the night before to soak the chickpeas, kidneys beans, and fava beans. Boil them in a pot with four cups of water for one minute, then turn off the heat and add a splash of apple cider vinegar. Cover the pot and let them soak overnight

For Donatella, fava beans were an acquired taste. "When I was a child, I hated them," she says. She’s come around to the hearty, healthy bean and has always been a fan of dandelion greens, an ingredient that many Italians believe calms the stomach. Timing note: The favas need to soak overnight.

Crème fraîche or sour cream gives the scrambled eggs a rich, creamy texture. Toasted breadcrumbs and a grating of cheese are delicious finishing touches.

This textural celebration of legumes includes those that are both in and out of pods. You'll find crisp-tender Romano beans and green beans, as well as droves of firm yet creamy fava beans (also called broad beans), which have been a staple in places like Egypt, China, and the Mediterranean for millennia. The beans are all cooked in one pot and then warmed in a skillet, where verdant shreds of basil join them at the last minute for extra oomph. Sound easy? That's because it is.

The traditional Egyptian breakfast of dried fava beans is also the national dish, eaten at all times of the day, in the fields, in village mud-houses, and in the cities. Restaurants serve it as a mezze, and it is sold in the streets. Vendors put the beans in large, round, narrow-necked vessels, which they bury through the night in the dying embers of the public baths. Ful medames is pre-Ottoman and pre-Islamic. It is probably as old as the Pharaohs. According to an Arab saying: “Beans have satisfied even the Pharaohs.” Egyptians gleefully tell you that the little brown beans have been found in pharaonic tombs and have been made to germinate. There are fields of them, and promotional explanations on fake papyrus by the Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, they could have been put there by tomb robbers. There are many types of dried fava beans—small, middle-sized, and large, all of which can be used—and there are very good-quality canned ones. Most expatriates are happy with canned ones, which they improve on with flavorings and trimmings. These need to be turned into a pan with their juice and cooked for 15 minutes.

Springtime in Tuscany means eating young green fava beans with salty, nutty crumbles of Pecorino Toscano—a firm sheep's-milk cheese. That favorite snack was a jumping-off point for these savory little toasts. Fresh arugula, both puréed and roughly chopped, punctuates the spread with spice and texture. If you can't get your hands on fresh fava beans, frozen edamame work well, too.

Every spring when the first crates of fava beans are delivered to the kitchen at Piperade, I can almost hear the collective groan from my kitchen staff all the way from my home twelve miles away. I like favas and use them as often as I can when they are in season, but I have to admit they are labor-intensive, requiring both shelling and peeling. However, from my perspective—and judging from the number of orders we get from our guests—they are worth the work. At home, I hand them to my sons to shell while they watch a baseball game on TV, or I enlist guests before dinner. This recipe is simplicity itself and allows the sweet, nutty flavor of the favas to shine. Try to find small beans; older, larger favas are too starchy to use here.

Peeling spring's fleeting fresh fava beans takes some time, but the results are well worth the effort. You can blanch and peel the beans a day ahead.

In this take on bruschetta, the toasts are spread with a fava puree and topped with a fresh salad.

The stems of Swiss chard get short shrift way too often; when they're beautiful rainbow chard, they deserve a dish all their own. Blanched to remove toughness, then grilled—yes, we like our chard charred—their earthiness is a natural complement to meaty fava beans.

The stems of Swiss chard get short shrift way too often; when they're beautiful rainbow chard, they deserve a dish all their own. Blanched to remove toughness, then grilled—yes, we like our chard charred—their earthiness is a natural complement to meaty fava beans.