Fava beans - cooked and consumed!

I made two dishes with the favas beans I recently bought. The first was simply toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and topped with fava beans and Parmigiano-Reggiano. A very quick and yummy snack.

I also made some penne pasta mixed with ricotta, fava beans and Parmigiano-Reggiano. It was good and simple to make because the sauce doesn't need to cook.

Pasta recipe:

1 lb of mini penne pasta
2-3 tbl butter
salt to taste
handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano
about 1 1/2 cups of ricotta cheese
fava beans, I think I had about 1 1/2 cups
reserved pasta water

Remove the fava beans from the pods. Cook in the beans in boiling water for one minute. After one minute, drain the beans and put them in a bowl of ice water. When the beans are cooled, peel each fava bean. The beans are in a pod but they are also covered, individually, with an outer shell. Set the peeled favas aside.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Reserve a couple cups of the pasta cooking water. To the hot pasta pot - add the butter, ricotta, and the hot drained penne. If the mixture is too dry add some of the reserved cooking water. When it is well mixed stir in the fava beans and the cheese. Add salt to taste. Serve right away while nice and hot.

We've eaten all the fava beans that I purchased the other day and now I am craving more! Next spring I may need to turn our lawn into a fava bean field.