So i finally managed to go to Italy after a few years away, you know the vaarus and all. This included being able to see my dad who, either due to the lock-down crazies or a spur of creativity, has decided to conduct into an experiment suggested by the local greengrocer.

This local greens peddler, in fact had an idea for an interesting novel recipe. Now this might be a genius marketing move from the greengrocer that needed to rid himself of some fava beans, but nevertheless the dish is sick so I decided to share it here and forward this beans scam.

Prep time: ~20 mins | Serve: 4

Ingredients:

• 500g Rigatoni
• 200g Fava Beans, peeled
• a small Shallot
• 150g Pancetta, cubed
• A Chilli Pepper

Preparation:

1. Put the water for the pasta to boil
2. Heat up some olive oil in a pan over medium heat
3. Chop the onion finely
4. Add the chilli and chop that too into thin round discs
5. Put the onion and chilli in the pan
6. While the onion goldens up, peel the fava beans
7. Once the onion is nice and golden add the pancetta
8. Add the fava beans to the pan just for a few moments, they don’t need to cook
9. Turn the heat under the pan off
10. At this point the water should be boiling, put in the salt and then the rigatoni.
11. Drain the pasta andd add it to the sauce, stir and serve.
12. Be careful of pigeons, you can expect two for each fava bean if you’re a skilled cook

Tips:

• The fava beans in the sauce don’t need to cook, just to warm up and gain some flavour
• To clean the fava beans, you wanna open them up, remove the beans, and remove the top bit that was attached to the umbilical cord thingy (i’m a botanist) cause that is sour in taste
• No need for parmesan

Recommendations:

• Use fresh beans, small beans, little balls of fur

Possible Substitutions:

• If you don’t have pancetta you cans use bacon or guanciale