I visited Gina yesterday and found her happily soaking dried broad [fava] beans. After draining them and removing the black parts, she was going to boil and cook them with tomatoes, celery and onion.
She told me that, in times gone by, the women would gather together around a brazier on winter evenings and remove the hard, black parts of the beans whilst telling each other family tales or stories from local legend. They didn’t bother to soak the beans first because they liked this way of keeping warm and passing the time.
Maccu, a thick soup of dried broad beans, is an ancient Sicilian dish and a special version is prepared for San Giuseppe [19th March]. People give thanks to the saint for delivering them from famine.
The broad bean [possibly the first vegetable known to man] was and is much loved all over Sicily but particularly in the Modica area which produced the tenderest ones on the island. Personally I am not keen on them [though don’t mind them as an ingredient ] but when I tasted some fresh, very tender raw ones with a slice of pecorino [a famous combination here] even I had to admit that this was a culinary marriage made in heaven.
Sadly, Gina says, young people do not have the pazienza to prepare the dried beans so she fears that both her dish and maccu will disappear within a generation.
12 comments:
Hi WL...never tried dried Fava beans, but Broad beans as we know them..when fresh, are good, when doubled podded, takes a while but much tastier. :-)
A real shame that these foodstuffs will become but a memory because of young attitudes these days. Broad beans and pecorino sounds like substantially delicious eating. Bah McDonald's!
Love fava soup!
Tis sad welshcakes, but a lot of old skills and knowledge is at risk of being lost, I wonder if it's always been that way? Tis a shame...my Nan used to cook in an old copper, i wouldn't know the first things about it, wish I'd listened :(
While working in the USA I've eaten a lot of green beans - I thought I had eaten green beans in the UK, but someone told me I was wrong. Perhaps it's a different kind of green bean in the USA from what is available/eaten in the UK.
Oh yum, and such a good source of protein (said the anemic one).
Hi, Anne. I've never had the patience for double-podding! Hi, Rowena. A Macdonald's opened here a few years ago but it soon closed because everyone preferred their arancini! Ciao, WW. I'm not keen on it myself. Hi, Kyles. It probably has. I think we all wish we'd asked our parents and grandparents more about these things. Hi, Dr CW. I'm not sure about that. I think what Americans know as green beans are the same as the ones you find here. But Brits tend to think of runner beans. Ciao, Lady M. Hope you are better.
Sometimes I think some traditional dishes should die out because they are based on the fact that when times were lean everything edible had to be eaten. But if you say this is delicious then in this case it is a shame.
It sounds a delicious recipe :-)
Hi, jmb. You have a very good point there. It's the young, raw broad beans that are delicious with pecorino.
I plant Broad beans in our veggie garden. They are a lovely winter meal. I love the fresh broad bean. My husband loves both fresh and dried. The dried broad bean has a unique flavour.
I actually cook the young broad bean pods with the skin on. It tastes delicious.
Thanks again, Cherie. Hi, Ardent. I think they taste delicious fresh.
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