To Peel or Not to Peel

As anyone who has ever cooked them will attest, fava beans can seem like the incredible shrinking vegetable. Start out with 3 pounds of pods, as the patient cooks in The Times Test Kitchen did recently, and by the time you’re done shucking and skinning, you wind up with 1 3/4 cups of usable beans.

But is all that labor necessary? Paula Wolfert, America’s queen of Mediterranean cookbooks, says peeling is just an affectation.

“The only people who do that,” she says, “are French and Italian chefs. You don’t think some peasant woman in Morocco is going to peel all those beans, do you?”

Viana LaPlace, another noted cookbook writer, vigorously seconds that opinion. “The main mistake people make with fava beans is that they peel them. It’s the peel that gives them their incredible flavor. It’s the peel that gives them that tiny bit of vegetal-mineral tang that I think is just delicious.”

In fact, in LaPlace’s new cookbook, “Unplugged Kitchen,” to be published in September by William Morrow & Co., she has two fava bean recipes that call for no peeling. In the first, she boils the beans for 10 minutes before dressing them with a mixture of olive oil, raw garlic, salt and chopped fresh red pepper. In the second, she braises favas with fresh spring onions and mint in just a little bit of water; then she uses it as a pasta sauce.

When we tried cooking fava beans unpeeled, we got decidedly mixed results. The smaller beans, it seemed, were fine. But the larger beans were definitely improved by some pruning. When they were cooked, the skins came loose on their own, littering the dish with tough, somewhat bitter little bits.

LaPlace says we cooked them too long. “You don’t need to cook them more than 10 to 12 minutes, maybe 15 if you’re flavoring a broth or something,” she said from her San Francisco home. “If you cook them longer than that, the skins will split and fall off.”

So I tried again, cooking the shucked but unpeeled beans in a small pan of boiling water. The beans were of medium size, about one-half to an inch in length and were a creamy green color with just a touch of white. They were mature enough, though, to have little nubs of “germ” attached to one end.

I pulled beans at five, 10 and 15 minutes and, before tasting them, dressed them with a little olive oil, some good sea salt and a couple torn mint leaves (even experiments should taste good). At five and 10 minutes, the skins were fine, not too tough and they stayed attached. In fact, as LaPlace pointed out, the slight bitterness made the beans--which were, actually, a little bland--more interesting.

After 15 minutes, the skins were splitting, but the beans inside had developed a much deeper, richer flavor than their briefly cooked kin.

This fits more with the theories of British writer Patience Gray, who, in her culinary memoir, “Honey From a Weed,”(Harper & Row, 1986) describes three ways of preparing favas, according to size. When they’re very young, she recommends eating them raw, with a bit of salty cheese--Greek feta, Sardinian marzotica or ricotta salata. (If she’d lived farther north, no doubt she would have included the classic central Italian accompaniment of pecorino Romano.)

“When in April, [fava] beans become just too large to eat raw, but are tender, the outer skin being green,” she writes, “and they are thrown into hot oil in an earthenware pot in which sliced sprunzala [onion shoot] is already simmering and are cooked for a brief time with a little salt and a sprig or two of mint. A delicacy.”

She recommends peeling the beans only when the skins are, as she puts it, “no longer green, but creamy white.”

The notoriously finicky Richard Olney, in his “Simple French Food” (Atheneum, 1974), says the skins add “a slightly bitter, pleasant and refreshing flavor,” but he recommends peeling any bean that is longer than half an inch--basically, when the beans are big enough that you can detect the shape through the pod. Bigger than half an inch, he says, “the light bitterness [turns] acrid.”

He also recommends a shorter than normal cooking time, even for beans as big as an inch in length. “Boiled, they will require 8 to 12 minutes and, as such, are still a good vegetable, but pureed, reheated over a high flame, vigorously stirred and beaten with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking or burning, a generous amount of butter stirred in away from the heat, they provide one of the most heavenly of all vegetable purees.”

Even Wolfert admits that she does, on special occasions, peel favas. Like when Alice Waters came for dinner the other night. “It makes a dish that shows you love somebody. It’s a real Valentine dish, that thing.”

MINESTRONE WITH FAVA BEANS

This may be the perfect early spring soup, thick enough to be satisfying, fresh enough to entice. It comes from Ed Giobbi’s “Pleasures of the Good Earth” (Alfred Knopf, 1991).

2 cups shelled fava beans

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

1 cup coarsely chopped tomatoes

5 cups water

1/4 cup rice

2 cups chopped spinach

Salt

Cook fava beans in pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Remove outer skins, discard and reserve beans.

Heat olive oil in soup pot over moderate heat. Add onion and celery and saute until onion begins to brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Add parsley, carrot and tomatoes and cook, stirring, several minutes. Add water and peeled beans, cover and cook over low to moderate heat until beans are tender, about 50 minutes. Add rice, cover and cook 10 more minutes. Add spinach, cover and cook over low heat until rice is tender, about 10 to 12 minutes. Season to taste with salt and serve hot.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

384 calories; 126 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 8 grams fat; 59 grams carbohydrates; 22 grams protein; 3.17 grams fiber.

UMBRIAN FAVA BEAN STEW (Scafata)

This recipe is about as simple as spring cooking gets. It’s adapted from Antonella Santolini’s “La Cucina Delle Regioni D’Italia: Umbria” (Edizioni Mida, 1988). The name comes from the Umbrian word for the hull of the beans.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup shelled, peeled fava beans

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped carrot

1 1/2 cups chopped Swiss chard leaves

1 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes

Salt, pepper

Cook oil, beans, onion, celery, carrot and chard over low heat in medium saucepan. When beans are quite tender, after about 45 minutes, add tomatoes and cook another 20 to 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

157 calories; 124 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 1.47 grams fiber.

RABBIT WITH MUSTARD, FAVA BEANS AND BABY ONIONS

(Lapin Saute aux Feves et aux Petits Oignons)

And this recipe is about as complicated as spring cooking gets. . . . It’s from three-star French chef Joel Robuchon’s book with Patricia Wells, “Simply French” (William Morrow & Co., 1991). But every bit of effort is rewarded in the final result. All the components need to be cooked on the same day, but if you pace yourself you won’t need to spend four hours in the kitchen.

RABBIT

1 large whole fresh rabbit (about 4 pounds) or 2 smaller rabbits

3 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

Sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup chicken stock

Remove liver from rabbit and reserve for Final Assembly. Trim off flaps of skin, tops of forelegs and any excess bone and reserve. With heavy knife or cleaver, divide carcass crosswise into 3 sections: hind legs, saddle and forelegs (including rib cage). Cut between hind legs to separate into 2 pieces. Split front carcass into 2 pieces as well. Split saddle crosswise into 3 even pieces.

Brush both sides of cut rabbit pieces generously with mustard. Sprinkle generously with thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Crush reserved bones and chop reserved trimmings and set aside.

Heat butter and oil in very large skillet over moderately high heat. When hot but not smoking, add reserved bones and trimmings and seasoned rabbit pieces. Immediately reduce heat to low (to keep meat from drying out). Cover and cook, shaking pan from time to time, until rabbit is tender but still moist, about 15 minutes per side (cooking time will vary according to size of pieces). Leaving trimmings in skillet, transfer rabbit pieces to large casserole. Season again with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and keep warm in 200-degree oven.

Increase heat to high and deglaze skillet by adding chicken stock and scraping up any bits that cling to bottom of pan as liquid bubbles. Reduce sauce over high heat to about 1 cup, 2 to 3 minutes. Strain sauce through fine sieve, discarding solids. Cover and keep sauce warm over very low heat, or place in saucepan, covered, in warm oven.

ONIONS

7 ounces baby or pearl onions

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon butter

Sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper

If using pearl onions, blanch for 2 minutes in large pot of boiling salted water, then drain.

Combine onions, sugar and butter in small saute pan over low heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste, cover with tight-fitting lid and cook until onions are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Shake pan occasionally to prevent onions from browning. Set aside, covered.

MUSHROOMS

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 pound fresh chanterelle mushrooms, trimmed and brushed clean (or domestic mushroom caps, trimmed, rinsed clean and quartered)

1 tablespoon lemon juice, optional

Sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper

Heat olive oil in medium saucepan over moderate heat. (If using domestic mushrooms, add lemon juice along with oil.) Add mushrooms, season to taste with salt and pepper, cover and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Set aside, covered.

FAVA BEANS

1 pound fresh unshelled fava beans, or about 1 cup shelled beans

Salt

Shell beans. Blanch beans 30 seconds in large pot of boiling salted water. Remove with slotted spoon and plunge into large bowl of ice water to stop cooking. As soon as beans are cool, drain. Peel and discard outer coating of beans, as well as germ. Set aside.

BACON

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 pound lightly smoked bacon, cut into very thin short strips

Combine butter and bacon in small skillet over moderate heat and cook until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Bacon should not brown or become crunchy. Drain and set aside.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

2 tablespoons butter

Sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 to 3 tablespoons flatleaf parsley leaves (snipped with scissors)

1 teaspoon fresh summer savory or fresh thyme leaves

Drain mushrooms and onions. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet over moderate heat. Add mushrooms and onions. Season to taste with salt and pepper and saute gently until heated through. Add bacon and fava beans and heat just until warmed through. Mixture should be meltingly tender and moist. Cover and keep warm over very low heat.

Liberally season reserved rabbit liver with salt and pepper to taste. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon butter in small skillet over moderate heat and cook liver until heated through but still moist and juicy, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. If liver seems to be cooking too quickly, remove skillet from heat and allow liver to cook off heat, shaking pan from time to time. Transfer liver to plate. Deglaze pan with vinegar, then return liver to pan, rolling it in deglazed juices.

To serve, divide warm rabbit pieces among 4 warmed dinner plates. Spoon onion, mushroom, bean and bacon mixture over rabbit. Cut liver into 4 equal pieces and arrange alongside. Spoon reserved sauce over rabbit pieces only and sprinkle rabbit pieces with parsley. Sprinkle pieces of liver with summer savory or thyme and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

904 calories; 1,040 mg sodium; 206 cholesterol; 55 grams fat; 34 grams carbohydrates; 66 grams protein; 2.03 grams fiber.

CREAMED FAVA BEANS AND BACON (Feves au Lard Fume)

Fava beans don’t get any richer than this, and they don’t get any more delicious, either. This recipe from Richard Olney’s “Simple French Food” (Atheneum, 1974) is almost compulsively edible. After all, how bad can bacon, cream and egg yolks be?

5 pounds young fava beans, in pods

1/4 pound lean bacon strips

1 tablespoon butter

1 branch fresh savory (or pinch finely crumbled dried savory)

About 3 tablespoons water

Salt

1/2 cup whipping cream

3 egg yolks

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon juice

Chopped parsley

Shell beans and remove skins from all except those pods that are tiny and bright green. Cut bacon in 1/2-inch sections, parboil for a few seconds to remove excess salt and drain.

Cook bacon in butter in heavy saucepan over low heat 2 to 3 minutes. Bacon should remain limp. Add fava beans, savory, just enough water to moisten lightly and salt to taste. Cover tightly and cook over high heat few seconds. Turn heat to low again so beans stew in own steam rather than boiling. Cook, shaking pan gently from time to time, until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool 1 minute or so.

Mix cream, egg yolks and pepper to taste and stir gently into fava beans. Return to low heat, stirring until sauce is only lightly bound, coating spoon thinly. Sauce should not approach boil. Squeeze in few drops lemon juice to taste, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

488 calories; 283 mg sodium; 267 mg cholesterol; 31 grams fat; 34 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 1.69 grams fiber.