Fava Beans and the Pig

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Fava beans have a kinship with ham in all its forms. At its most basic, raw fava beans can be slit down the middle with a thumbnail and eaten in the same bite as a piece of thinly cut ham. The most interesting version of this I have eaten involved newly picked beans from a friend’s garden, each the size of a jelly bean, tucked inside slivers of dark, moist Joselito Gran Reserva ham from acorn-fed pigs. At a less rarefied level, bacon and boiled fava beans tossed in the bacon fat is a supper to which I return time and again.

   Step 2

   A lump of smoked ham, served hot with some of its thin cooking juices and a thick mash of the beans, is warming on a chilly summer evening. (It works even better in winter if you remembered to freeze a few beans in the summer.) Ends of fatty bacon, which you can often buy for a song from a deli, make a quick weekday meal when chopped and sautéed with lightly boiled fava beans and lots of flat parsley, its leaves thrown almost whole into the pan. The merest splash of dry sherry will turn it into something altogether more soulful.