Recipe sent in by CSA member Maura Gilmartin.
Source: Six Seasons, A New Way With Vegetables, Joshua McFadden with Martha Holmberg
Serves 4 as an appetizer or light lunch
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 pounds fava beans in their pods
2 stalks green garlic or scallions, trimmed (including 1/2 inch off the green tops), roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
About 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Four 1/2-inch-thick slices country bread (I used regular sliced bread)
DIRECTIONS
Shell, blanch, and peel the fava beans
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 mash 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 1/4 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.
Also pictured: cucumber and radish salad (also from the CSA). It's just a sliced cucumber salad tossed in rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, topped with some radish.
