Fava or Broad Beans

I mention fava beans here to say that I know they appear frequently in this book—I couldn’t resist. Please don’t commit the English culinary mistake of not peeling the beans after taking them out of the pod or you will hate them. The only time you can eat the outer skin is if the beans are to be eaten within the hour of their being picked and if the beans are no more than half an inch across. Fava beans were one of my projects in the-vegetable garden when I was a child—no one else, not even the gardener, would spend hours wiping the black flies off the plants, but as the youngest, I had no choice.