The Alien's List #1 - Stuff to eat before you die... Broad beans and Baccellone cheese

The Alien' List #1 - Baccelli e Baccellone (Broad beans and Baccellone cheese)

Welcome to the first episode of The Alien’s List. As first episode I’d go back in time a couple of months in Tuscany. The period across the end of April and the begin of May is when the broad beans, baccelli in fact, are harvested. If it happens to you to be in Tuscany (actually anywhere in Italy where you can find broad bean under the name of fava) in that period it won’t be difficult to find in almost any town or village markets, groceries or just simple stalls along the road in the countryside, heaps of fresh broad beans.
And also if you enter in any cheese shop or market in the area of Pisa or Livorno, you will see big sign labelling something called baccellone.
But if you want the ultimate broad bean experience you better attend on one of the uncountable Sagra del baccello. In Italy with Sagra we mean a festival that 99% of time involves food and most of time take place at the same of some particular harvesting whether is broad bean, wine, aubergine, tomato. Of course there’s space also for meat lovers with festival of wild boar, sausage, hare and all the other games.
Broad bean was the ancient tribute the Romans offer to some of their divinities in particular Pluto the god of the underworld and Proserpina abducted by Pluto himself and goddess of fertility. Ancient Egyptians instead refrained to eat it, they didn’t sow it, they didn’t touch it with the hands and the priests didn’t even laid the eyes on it because they thought it was filthy.
Last April I was in Italy and the groceries down the road sold Baccelli dell’Ardenza, Ardenza is one of the district of Livorno, so I bought 2 kilos of them with some baccellone, and the feast was done. I ate with my parents all the raw broad beans with little salt and the cheese and of course a flask of wine.
Now some restaurant offer the dish as a starter, with the beans already without the shell and served together with the diced cheese; you can have them at the end of the meal in the same way but I think the best experience is to feast with them. In the countryside you can still find people eating beans and cheese in the field on the shade of some tree.
As I said the cheese used with the beans is called baccellone and there is no equivalent in English. As in Greece the same beans are eaten still raw together with Feta cheese, the experience can be easily done in England too.
The baccellone is basically a particular ewe’s cheese, pecorino in fact, with took that name because is commonly eaten together with baccelli. It is a little salty and peppery and the one used with baccelli has usually a white colour differently from the aged one which is more brownish.
Broad beans can be boiled or just cook in pan with some oil and bacon, but if I have to suggest a recipe it would be:

BROAD BEANS' FEAST

Ingredient:

At least 1 kilo of broad beans still with the shell each person
Feta cheese as much as you like
Salt
Lots of wine

Method:
Take a car and go for a picnic in the countryside. Sit on the shade of any tree you like. Start to feast. Open the shell eat the beans raw with same salt and cheese and sip a good wine. You you find a shell that contains 7 beans is good luck. Let me know.