Alexandrian Spicy Dried Fava Bean Spread

Alexandria lies on the western edge of the Nile, with its back to Egypt and its face to the Mediterranean. Founded by Alexander the Great, who was buried there in a golden tomb, it was long famed for luxury, scholarship, and trade, and it remains among the most cosmopolitan of cities. Fava beans cooked in this way are so popular in Egypt they might be called a national food; in the age of the pharaohs, however, they were taboo, probably because Egyptians, like many other ancient cultures, b