eat this in Rome now

+ a seasonal roman recipe and all the contadino sh*t

There’s no better contadino sh*t than eating fava beans with kilos of pecorino cheese and a hunk of bread the size of my head.

I can imagine myself as a Roman empress now, undercover in the countryside as a simple farmer, shucking fava beans and sipping homemade wine. Maybe playing the harp or having an affair with the sexy town blacksmith.

I say empress because who wouldn’t want to have a palace in Rome? And dress in a gorgeous silk stola decorated in jewels and gold? A dream, until you smell what a city without a modern-day public sanitation system is like. Precisely why you need a palace with cute Corinthian columns, preferably on top of Rome’s many hills.

I digress.

When primavera rolls around in Rome, we don’t want any greasy suppli or a carbonara coma - we want all things fresh and green that comes with Spring.

And that means fava beans.

No, not those sad, limp, frozen fava beans that’ve been in your mom’s freezer since you were five.

We are talking fresh and big green beans filled with nature’s more fertile spring fruit.

in Italian, fava bean is simply fava (singular) or fave (plural)

Fava beans are my favorite double entendre. Because it’s one of the randomest things you’d think would also mean male genitalia in Italian.

The writers of Silence of the Lambs totally didn’t consider that one, did they?

Is it because of fava’s funny, long shape? Or the male organ-like shape of its beans?

Or maybe it’s because it was once an ancient symbol of fertility? What is it with these Ancient Romans and only eating vegetables that they thought were baby-making aphrodisiacs?

I can see the springtime ancient Rome food ads now. Time to get shucked!

Ancient Romans also apparently held parties where they would throw fava beans and drunkenly bang pots and pans to fend off evil spirits every May during the festival of Lemuria.*

Gosh, ancient Rome sounds like such a time.

‘ugly but delicious’ fava beans at my favorite stall in Mercato San Silverio

Dirty vegetables aside, fava beans are god’s gift to Spring in Rome. And when you know just how to eat these earthy, nutty, vegan-friendly, gluten-free (and the food marketing list goes on) babies, you will be in heaven on earth.

two slutti ways to eat fava beans