Broad bean and mint paté

This is the period of fresh fava beans (breoad beans), if you live in Umbria and you have forgotten to plant them in your kitchen garden, don’t worry, everybody will gift them to you! The day we receive them, without ever transgressing – it is a true ritual – we eat them fresh with pecorino cheese and a nice glass of red wine, we always use the rest for the ‘scafata’. But if the ‘donors of beans’ are many or very generous, there are quite a few left to prepare the paté, to spread on toast. I propose you my favorite version, fresh and fragrant: broad bean and mint paté.

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Ingredients

• 600 grams of broad beans – already shelled
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 20 peppermint leaves + 10 leaves to garnish
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper to taste

How to get up

If you have fresh beans in the pods, shell them, and leave them the peel. If you already have broad beans, go ahead and skip the step!

In a saucepan, boil the water, salt it, and when it boils, throw the beans in their skins, and cook for 5 minutes, drain and pass them under cold water.

Peel them. Put them in a narrow bowl with high sides, add the 20 mint leaves, the lemon juice, the extra virgin olive oil (do not skimp), the pepper and season with salt, blend everything with the blender.

The quantities of seasoning depend on your tastes, therefore, once the paté is ready, taste and correct.

Place the broad bean and mint paté in the fridge – cold is tastier – until it’s time to serve it, toast the bread and spread it, garnish each crouton with a mint leaf.