Cut spaghetti with fava beans and fresh tomato is a simple, light, and nutritious first course from the Sicilian popular tradition, taking advantage of all the beneficial properties of these spring legumes! Every year, with the arrival of the first warmth, I buy fresh fava beans and gladly put it on my table! If desired, dried fava beans can also be used, allowing this dish to be recreated in winter, but the flavor changes radically as fresh fava beans are much sweeter! Like many dishes reminiscent of my land, this is also a maternal inheritance. When I was little, it often happened that I helped my mother, albeit with little enthusiasm, to shell the fava beans. The effort of that operation was truly worth it, appreciating the final goodness and genuineness of that pasta she strictly used short! Over time I learned to prepare it creamy like her, flavoring it with mint leaves and Sicilian pecorino, or with very fragrant local wild fennel. The steps to create this dish suitable for the whole family are mostly easy and quite fast, naturally excluding the cleaning of the fresh legume. So if you love fava beans like me, you absolutely must try it, it won’t disappoint you!
Here are some other Sicilian traditional first courses that might interest you:
- PASTA WITH LONG ZUCCHINI AND POTATOES (Sicilian Recipe)
- PASTA WITH TENERUMI, POTATOES, AND CHICKPEAS (Revisited Sicilian Recipe)
- PASTA WITH TRUNZU CABBAGE OF ACI (Sicilian Recipe)
- PASTA WITH ANCHOVIES AND WILD FENNEL (Traditional Catanese Recipe)
- CASERECCE WITH YELLOW CHERRY TOMATOES, CAPERS, AND TOASTED BREADCRUMBS
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 25 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring
Ingredients
- 6.35 oz cut spaghetti (or ditalini)
- 3.3 lbs fresh fava beans (in the pod)
- 1/2 leek
- 1 fresh spring onion
- 6.35 oz cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- A few leaves mint
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste chili powder
Tools
- 1 Knife
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Lid
- 1 Wooden spoon
Steps
To prepare cut spaghetti with fresh fava beans and tomato, start with the fava beans: open the pods and extract them one by one.
Once shelled, you need to peel off their skin. Remove the tegument, which is the protrusion at one end, peel them, and proceed this way with all the fava beans you have. Wash them well under running water.
In a large saucepan with a thick bottom, sauté 4 tablespoons of olive oil with the fresh spring onion and half a leek thinly sliced into rings for a couple of minutes.
Add the fava beans and stir continuously for another 2 minutes.
Add the cherry tomatoes, previously washed and cut into quarters if they are medium-sized or in half if your cherry tomatoes are smaller.
Complete with the tomato paste and let it season.
If you have wild fennel available, boil it for 10 minutes and add it finely chopped, otherwise, flavor with a few mint leaves.
At this point, you can cover them completely with plenty of hot water (about 17 fl oz).
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a minimum and let it simmer with the lid closed for about 15′-18′, letting the broth reduce slightly and stirring occasionally.
When the fava beans start to become tender, add a little more hot water, not too much, the pasta with fava beans should remain creamy, add more only if needed, then bring back to a boil and season with salt.
At this point, add the short pasta, in my case the cut spaghetti and continue cooking for the time indicated on your package, stirring frequently, especially towards the end, as pasta with little broth tends to stick more easily.
Once ready, turn off the heat and season with chili to taste and more fresh mint leaves.
Finish with extra virgin olive oil raw after plating, wait 5 minutes, and serve.
And voilà… the cut spaghetti with fresh fava beans and tomato are ready to be served.
Bon Appétit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉Pasta with fresh fava beans should be consumed still hot right after cooking.
Tips, notes, variations, and suggestions
🔵You can finish the dish with some grated Sicilian pecorino, it will be a great pairing, but any grated cheese of your choice will work.
🔵You can replace chili with simple ground black pepper and fresh cherry tomatoes with tomato sauce.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Is it possible to use a longer pasta format?
Surely this dish, being a sort of soup, is more suitable for a short format, but nothing prevents using orecchiette, penne, or even traditional spaghetti. In these cases, the trick will be to add more hot water than indicated in the recipe for optimal and even cooking.
