It’s fava bean season, which we can use raw or cooked in countless recipes for first courses, second courses, sauces, and side dishes. The cold pasta with fava beans and mackerel is a tasty and delightful single course, rich and versatile, to be prepared in advance, fresh, easy, where the fava beans will be used raw both whole and in cream.
If you like fava beans, you’ll find a collection of recipes with many other ideas on how to use this enticing spring legume in the kitchen at the link below.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring
Ingredients
- 9 oz short pasta (also gluten-free)
- 7 oz mackerel or tuna in oil
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 10.5 oz fresh fava beans
- 10 sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 Tropea onion
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste fine salt
- to taste fresh or dried chili pepper
Steps
To prepare the cold pasta with mackerel and fava beans, start by bringing to a boil the water where you will cook the short pasta (you can use any short formats, gluten-free or not, that you like or have left over in the pantry).
To avoid ending up with mushy pasta, it is good to cook it very, very al dente. For instance, I cooked gluten-free farfalle for exactly 6 minutes (out of 9 minutes), starting from when the water resumed boiling after adding the pasta.
Salt the pasta cooking water just enough without overdoing it, as we can adjust the seasoning later anyway.
Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water for about ten minutes (to save time and gas/electricity, we can soak the sun-dried tomatoes in the same water for cooking the pasta, removing them just before adding the chosen pasta format). After soaking, cut them into strips or chunks.
Thoroughly drain the mackerel from its preserving oil.
Wash the cherry tomatoes and dice them. Perform this operation on a wide, flat plate; this way, you will collect the cherry tomatoes’ vegetative water, which will then be used as a dressing to give an extra touch of flavor to the pasta.
After peeling the fresh fava beans, set aside a handful (we will add them to the finished dish to give a pleasant crunchy note) and blend the rest for a few seconds with 3-4 tablespoons of cold water. We should obtain a smooth, dense puree (not hard and not liquid) and homogeneous, which we will make more fluid later by adding it to the pasta and other ingredients, including extra virgin olive oil.
Finely chop a small amount of red onion (preferably Tropea); only a little is needed as it should accompany the flavors of the other ingredients without overpowering them.
As soon as the pasta is ready, drain it very well and transfer it to a large bowl.
Immediately add the fresh cherry tomato cubes and their water, the sun-dried tomatoes, the onion, the mackerel, the whole fresh fava beans, a pinch of chili powder or fresh chili, if desired, and the fava bean cream. Dress with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, mix immediately to combine everything, cover with a lid or a plate, leaving a gap to prevent condensation, and allow to cool completely at room temperature (you can then transfer the well-covered bowl to the fridge if necessary).
The cold pasta with fava beans and mackerel is ready.
Bon appetit
