Put the skillet back over medium heat and reheat the pancetta gently.
With a ladle or a measuring cup, scoop out about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and peas. Whisk a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water into the fat and pancetta in the skillet, to make the bacon fat lighter and creamier by emulsifying it with the water. Pull the pan off the heat.
Whisk some of that warm fat into the beaten egg to temper it (meaning to gently warm up the egg so that it doesn’t scramble when you add it to the hot skillet), then whisk the egg into the skillet.
Dump the pasta, peas, scallions, and pea tendrils (if using) into the skillet. Add both the cheeses and toss everything quickly and thoroughly to blend. Add a few more small splashes of the pasta water and keep tossing until the noodles are cloaked in a creamy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt or black pepper as needed. Serve right away. This dish does not wait.
Couscous with English Peas, Apricots, and Lamb Meatballs
The ingredients list looks long, but the meatballs are very easy to assemble. To make ahead: The night before, prep all the vegetables, herbs, and dried fruit, and cook the couscous and the meatballs. When it’s time to fix dinner, bring the couscous up to room temperature, toss in the goods, and gently reheat the meatballs in a low oven, covered. Ideally, your peas will be so fresh and young that they need no cooking, but if they taste starchy, blanch them in boiling salted water for about 1 minute.
» Serves 4
Yogurt sauce
1 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt (not Greek)
3 scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), finely sliced on a sharp angle, soaked in ice water for 20 minutes, and drained well
¼ cup chopped mint leaves
1 small garlic clove, minced
¼ teaspoon dried chile flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Couscous
8 dried apricots, cut into bits
¼ cup white wine vinegar or red wine vinegar
¼ cup warm water
1 cup couscous
Juice of ½ lemon
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), sliced on a sharp angle, soaked in ice water for 20 minutes, and drained well
½ cup lightly packed mint leaves
2 pounds English peas in their pods, shelled (2 cups peas)
½ cup roughly chopped toasted almonds
Meatballs
1 pound ground lamb
3 scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), finely chopped
¼ cup lightly packed chopped mint leaves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dry white wine
¼ cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 egg
For the yogurt sauce: Stir together the yogurt, scallions, mint, garlic, chile flakes, and salt and black pepper to taste in a small bowl. Taste and adjust the chile flakes, salt, and black pepper. Let the sauce rest for at least 30 minutes so the flavors can develop.
For the couscous: Put the apricots in a small bowl with the vinegar and water. Soak until they are plumped, at least 30 minutes, then drain thoroughly.
Hydrate and fluff the couscous. Add the lemon juice and ¼ cup olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Toss thoroughly and let cool to room temperature.
Add the apricots, scallions, mint, shelled peas, and almonds. Toss lightly, taste for seasoning, and add more salt, pepper, lemon, or olive oil. Set aside.
For the meatballs: Heat the oven to 450°F.
Break the ground lamb into smallish chunks and put in a large bowl. Sprinkle the scallions, mint, cumin, salt, cayenne, wine, and breadcrumbs over the meat. Gently work the ingredients to blend them, by pushing and folding with your fingers. You want to be as gentle as possible in order to not make tough, compact meatballs. Once the ingredients are mostly blended, take a small spoonful of the mixture and fry it in a small skillet or pot. Taste the cooked sample for seasoning, then add more of whatever is needed, especially salt. You want the meatballs to be quite savory and highly seasoned.
Once you’ve adjusted the seasoning, whisk a small glug of olive oil and the egg together, pour it over the meat, and work it in using the same gentle method.
Divide the meat into 4 piles, then divide each pile into 4, and shape each piece into a nice ball (to make a total of 16 meatballs). Arrange all the meatballs on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any fat or juices during cooking).
Bake the meatballs until they are no longer pink in the center, 8 to 10 minutes (test one by gently prying it apart . . . you can just press it back together to serve).
To serve, divide the couscous among 4 large shallow bowls. Top each portion with 4 meatballs and a nice drizzle of yogurt sauce. Pass more sauce at the table.
Fava Beans
Fava beans are hugely popular in the Mediterranean and parts of the Middle East, but not as well known in the United States. They are a spring vegetable that demands a bit of work, and what seems like a lot of fava pods yields very little by the time you’re done. But their bright green color, buttery texture, and sweet nutty flavor make it worth it. Favas paired with some young pecorino, a touch of mint, and of course olive oil is the best spring combo ever.
Shelling, blanching, and peeling. Favas come in large, puffy pods that are lined with a spongy layer. Inside the pods are large, flat beans, each in its own tough skin. Start by splitting open the fava pods and popping out the beans. To peel the membranes off, you have to blanch them: Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt it generously, and drop in the fava beans. Cook for about 30 seconds, then immediately drain. Rinse well with very cold water to stop the cooking. Cut a small slit in the whitish membrane of each bean with the tip of a paring knife or your thumbnail, then gently squeeze out the two halves of the bright green fava. You are now ready for action.
Once prepped, they’re cooked. As with English peas, minimal cooking is key. When you’ve blanched and peeled them, they’re fully cooked, so add them to dishes late in the process. If you’re really lucky, you may find fava leaves early in the season, which can be used like any tender greens, or baby favas, which are immature enough to eat whole, pod and all.
Pleasantly plump. But mostly what you’ll find, and what I like best, are the long shiny pods full of beans. Aim for ones that are thick enough to indicate plump beans inside but not so thick and big that the beans will be overly mature and heading for starchiness. Don’t worry about a few brown spots or scraggly brown leaves and stems—that happens quickly on favas and doesn’t mean the beans are over the hill.
Make room. Store them in the fridge in plastic until you’re ready to shuck and cook. It can be hard to know how many pounds of pods you need, so a good rule of thumb is that 2 pounds of pods will yield about 1 cup of shelled and peeled fava beans.
Smashed Fava Beans, Pecorino, and Mint on Toast
This is a loose pesto of fava beans and mint, with plenty of olive oil. Use it as a pasta sauce or as a dip for vegetables, spoon it over crushed boiled new potatoes, or spread some on toasted country bread, as I do here. If you have a mortar and pestle, use it, though a food processor will work fine, as long as you don’t overprocess.
» Serves 4 as an appetizer or light lunch
2½ pounds fava beans in their pods
2 stalks green garlic or scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly grate
d Pecorino Romano cheese
About 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Four ½-inch-thick slices country bread
Shell, blanch, and peel the favas as previously described.
Put the green garlic and a pinch of salt into a food processor and pulse a few times. Add half the mint leaves and pulse a few more times so the garlic is fairly fine. Add the peeled favas and 2 tablespoons olive oil and pulse again. Your goal is to bash up the favas but not completely puree them. You may need to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl between pulses.
Scrape the mixture into a bowl, season with some pepper, and stir in ¼ cup grated pecorino and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Taste and adjust the flavor with more salt, pepper, or lemon juice, and adjust the consistency with olive oil so that it is loose and luscious.
Brush the bread on one side with olive oil and grill or broil until crisp. Arrange on plates, top with the fava mixture and the rest of the mint leaves (torn if they’re big), and finish with a nice shower of grated pecorino and another drizzle of oil.
Fava, Farro, Pecorino, and Salami Salad
The pairing of favas and pecorino is a typical springtime dish in Rome—often you’ll see them speared on toothpicks as a snack. Here I’m tossing it all together with chewy farro and cubed salami to make a hearty but still springlike salad.
» Serves 4 to 6
2½ pounds fava beans in their pods
2 cups cooked and cooled farro
¼ pound salami, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices and then into ¼-inch dice
4 ounces pecorino fresco, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices and then into ¼-inch dice
½ bunch scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), thinly sliced on an angle, soaked in ice water for 20 minutes, and drained well
Red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon dried chile flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
¼ cup loosely packed mint leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Shell, blanch, and peel the favas.
Put the farro, favas, salami, pecorino, and scallions in a large bowl. Add ¼ cup vinegar, the chile flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, and lots of twists of black pepper, and toss. Let the salad sit for about 5 minutes so the vinegar soaks into the farro.
Add the parsley and mint and toss. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Drizzle on a glug of olive oil, toss, and taste again—adjust as needed. Serve at room temperature.
At the market I love to eat vegetables at every stage of their development, and fava beans give me that opportunity—with their leaves! They’re not easy to find—ask around at your farmers’ market, or try growing favas yourself. The leaves are beautiful pale blue-green, smooth-edged, pointed ovals about two inches long. Their flavor, best when young and tender, is a cross between the actual fava bean and a mild lettuce. Add them to salads or give them a whirl in a skillet with some olive oil.
Fava and Pistachio Pesto on Pasta
Yes, shelling and blanching the fresh fava beans is time consuming, but the rest of this dish is simple to prepare, balancing out the work you do up front. Once you get this recipe down, you’ll be able to make it again without even looking at the recipe. You can use almost any noodle you want, short or long.
» Serves 4
2 pounds fava beans in their pods
1½ cups lightly packed basil leaves
4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
½ cup pistachios, lightly toasted
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon dried chile flakes
1 pound dried pasta, such as spaghetti or fettuccine
1½ cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ cup lightly packed mint leaves
Shell, blanch, and peel the favas. Don’t drain the favas, however; scoop them out so that you can use the boiling water for the following steps.
Set a bowl of ice water on the counter. Drop the basil leaves into the pot of boiling water and immediately scoop them out and plunge them into the ice water. This quick blanching helps to set the green color.
Drop 2 of the garlic cloves into the boiling water and blanch them for about 1 minute. Drain and drop the garlic into the ice water, too.
Pull out the basil and garlic and blot everything dry with paper towels. Put the basil, blanched garlic, parsley, pistachios, half the favas, and ½ teaspoon salt in a food processor. Pulse to make a coarse puree, occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides. With the motor running, drizzle in ½ cup olive oil.
Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining 2 garlic cloves and the chile flakes. Cook the garlic, stirring constantly, until lightly toasty and broken up into bits, 3 to 5 minutes. The garlic should not become dark brown. Pull the pan off the heat while you cook the pasta.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt until it tastes like the sea. Add the pasta and cook until al dente (usually 1 or 2 minutes short of the time listed on the package). With a ladle or a measuring cup, scoop out about a cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.
Put the pasta pot back over medium heat, scrape the pesto from the processor into the pot, and cook for a few seconds. Add about ½ cup of the pasta water, the pasta, Parmigiano, the rest of the fava beans, and the butter. Toss to blend everything. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt, black pepper, chile flakes, or cheese; adjust the texture with more pasta water if needed to make the sauce creamy.
Pile into pasta bowls and top with the mint and a final drizzle of olive oil.
Fava Beans, Cilantro, New Potatoes, and Baked Eggs
Here I give the favas a more robust treatment, teaming them up with plenty of garlic, tomatoes, spices, and fragrant cilantro to make a vegetable stew. You can serve the stew alone or on toast, but I like to crack a few eggs into it and bake it in the oven. Keep the yolks runny so they can enrich the spicy stew.
» Serves 4
½ pound new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into quarters
Kosher salt
3 pounds fava beans in their pods
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 bunches scallions, trimmed (including ½ inch off the green tops), sliced into ¼-inch rounds
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
Dried chile flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juices
1 small bunch cilantro, roughly chopped (stems and leaves)
1 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
4 eggs
Slightly Tangy Flatbreads (optional), for serving
Put the potatoes in a medium pot, add water to cover by 1 inch, and add 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until the potatoes are just tender, 12 to 14 minutes. Drain.
Shell, blanch, and peel the favas.
Pour a healthy glug of olive oil into a 10-inch ovenproof skillet or sauté pan and heat over medium heat. Add the scallions, garlic, and a pinch of salt and sauté until soft and fragrant but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the smoked paprika, cumin, 1 teaspoon chile flakes, and several twists of black pepper and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Add the tomatoes and juices, adjust the heat to a nice simmer, and cook, stirring and scraping occasionally, until the tomatoes are thicker and concentrated, about 10 minutes.
Add most of the cilantro and parsley (save a bit to sprinkle over the top), the favas (reserve a small handful for garnish), and the potatoes. Simmer for another 5 minutes, crushing the potatoes a bit
so they soak up the sauce. Taste and adjust with more salt, cumin, smoked paprika, or chile flakes so the sauce is quite zippy.
Heat the oven to 400°F.
Crack an egg into a small bowl, scoop away a bit of sauce in one quadrant of the skillet to make a well for the egg, and slip the egg into the well. Repeat with the other eggs.
Put the skillet in the oven and bake until the eggs are done to your liking, 10 to 15 minutes—the ideal is just until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny.
Top with the reserved cilantro and parsley and the reserved favas, and serve right from the skillet, with the flatbreads, if you like.
Lettuces and Early Greens
At this early point in the season, all leafy things are sweet and tender, and perfect for delicate treatment. My preference with perfect spring greens is to mix them up and dress them lightly with beautiful oil and vinegar, and if I have a handful of edible flower petals, I’ll add them as well.
Shop early. If you’re buying at a farmers’ market or harvesting your own, get your greens early in the morning while the air is still cool. They wilt easily in the warmth of midday. (Grocery stores tend to keep their greens perked up by spritzing them frequently . . . annoying, but effective.) Keep them as cool as possible once you get them home. I’ll often loosely wrap my greens in paper towels or a clean kitchen towel and then stuff them into a plastic bag, a method that seems to keep the greens happy for a couple of days at least. The good thing is that all but the wiltiest greens can be revived with a soak in cold water and a spin dry.
And shop early in the season as well, especially if you live in a hot climate. Lettuce becomes bitter in high heat, so even when a head might look glorious and green, its flavor may be too strong; I always taste a leaf before I buy.
Six Seasons Page 10