Now, I've never even seen a fava bean, as far as I know! But maybe it's an Italian name for a bean I have eaten. I was born (at St. Joseph's Hospital!) in a city with a large Cuban population so I've always eaten garbanzos. I was an adult before I realized they were also called "chickpeas."
I've been meaning to look up fava beans for years, so, hang on. . .
OK, they're are also known by as broad beans, Windsor beans, horse beans, pigeon beans, tic beans but that still tells me nothing!
Botanical name is Vicia fabia. Fava beans are part of all Mediterranean cuisines and the Chinese, Thais, etc., eat them, too. They've been cultivated for 5000 years, found in some of the earliest known human settlements, etc. They look like small to medium-sized lima beans or butter beans (which as far as I know are just two names for the same thing; they were lima beans in my family but butter beans in my husband's family. I was very disappointed the first time my mother-in-law said we'd be having butter beans as part of a meal, thinking of speckled butter beans and being served limas! I like limas, but I had my mouth set for speckled butter beans.)
Fava beans are, when bought fresh, encased in 7"-9" pods with thick white cottony linings.
If you can find fava beans, here's a couple of ideas from "All About Fava Beans":
"Fresh favas are a sign of spring in Italy and in many American restaurants. Chefs today use the fresh beans to mash or puree and spread on crostini or on plates as the basis for preparations ranging from other vegetables to grilled meats and fish to chicken.
Add fresh fava beans to risottos, spring vegetable stews and ragouts and soups. They are great with their springtime partner - artichokes.
A favorite traditional Italian appetizer is peeled cooked fava beans sprinkled with olive oil and salt along with salami, prosciutto and slices of Parmesan or pecorino cheese. Simply wonderful!A Word of Caution - there is a very rare disease called favism, which is a serious reaction to eating raw fava beans or breathing their pollen. The disease affects some people of Mediterranean descent. The risk of eating cooked fava beans is small." (That would be why Pythagoras wrote "Avoid fava beans.")
The peeled cooked favas with olio and parmigiano sound wonderful -- that's why I put that in bold! We're vegetarians now but if I could get real prosciutto, I'd be very tempted. . . And it's hard to imagine a bad crostini, except in faux "Italian" restaurants in the US.
Above quotes, paraphrasing and more at
http://www.oceanmist.com/favabeans.htmThis is Egyptian, but sounds good, and uses canned fava beans so it's quicker:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fava-Bean-Breakfast-Spread/Detail.aspxHere, you can get "The Long History of the Mysterious Fava Bean" from the L A Times PLUS recipes for
Minestrone with Fava Beans, Scafata (Umbrian Fava Bean Stew), and Creamed Fava Beans and Bacon, which involves not only bacon but heavy cream and eggs, it's gotta be good!
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/05-96/05-29-96/c01li096.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fava_beanWikipedia has lots of info, including:
"In Italy, broad beans are traditionally sown on November 2, All Souls Day. Small cakes made in the shape of broad beans (though not of them) are known as fave dei morti or "beans of the dead". According to tradition, Sicily once experienced a failure of all crops other than the beans; the beans kept the population from starvation, and thanks were given to Saint Joseph. Broad beans subsequently became traditional on Saint Joseph's Day altars in many Italian communities. Some people carry a broad bean for good luck; some believe that if one carries a broad bean, one will never be without the essentials of life. In Rome, on the first of May Roman families traditionally eat fresh fava beans with Pecorino Romano cheese during a daily excursion in the Campagna."
Planting them on Good Friday or during the night is said to bring luck -- so planting them on the night of Good Friday would bring more, perhaps?
They should NOT be eaten by anyone taking MAO inhibitors, or anyone with the disease abbreviated G6PD and commonly known as "favism." Not clear if they mean only raw beans are problematic for those groups. G6PD is common in some ethnic groups, so I guess anyone eating them for the first time might want to eat just a few. They're not telling which ethnic groups are likely to have G6PD, but if you have that enzyme deficiency, you can develop hemolytic anemia.
And they contain L-dopa, which has been used to treat Parkinson's disease for decades. Ooh, they are also used as a natural alternative to Viagra, since L-dopa influences libido. I predict a RISE in fava bean sales if that news gets out! :7
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