Favas, the Italian Way

Reading your story (“Emeralds on the Table,” May 19), I’m curious about the directive to peel each individual fava bean. I know this is common in U.S. restaurants and recipe writing but I wonder where it came from and when. I’ve never seen anyone in Italy, Spain or Lebanon peel a fava bean. The thought there is that if the fava beans have to be peeled, they’re too big to eat anyway. In Lebanon (and other parts of the Middle East) favas are harvested when they’re so young and tender that you eat the whole thing, pod and all, just like string beans (with olive oil and lemon juice, delicious!). And in Italy, favas are harvested when they’re so young and tender that you eat the beans, unpeeled and raw, with a little fine Pecorino Toscano--on the youthful side, please. So where did this idea begin? In France? With chefs? We Americans should be sending tough, old fave back to the growers and asking them to do the peeling. Also wonder when some cagey California grower is going to wake up to the fact that artichokes in Italy don’t have chokes, even great big mamme, as they’re often called. Big mothers, I guess, is the translation. Or big breasts, it being Italy. Just curious.

NANCY HARMON JENKINS

Cambridge, Mass.