Jody Williams - Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant: An Italian Cookbook

Days start before dawn at Via Carota in the spring, and its a pleasure to be outside in the brisk air, sweeping the sidewalk outside our restaurant. Grove Street goes one way, starting west of the restaurant near the Hudson River. Its so quiet at that end of the street that we can hear the midday laughter of the kids from the school nearby. On the other side of Via Carota is Seventh Avenue South, a main artery where taxis and cyclists rush by and the subway churns out foot traffic. Before leaves begin to appear on the trees, spring shows itself in new asparagus shoots, fava beans in fuzzy little pods, and foraged finds like nettles. We crave nourishment: raw vegetables, eggs, and big bowls of cooked greens. Small artichokes are shaved and served raw or grilled; leafy green vegetables are cooked slowly in olive oil. We seek to cook with little interference.

Favas

Eating the years first fava beans marks the beginning of spring for us. We sit with a pile of favas on our narrow wooden table and talk over mounds of paperwork and other minutiae, peeling fava beans mindlessly and nibbling them with fresh pecorino. We grab the moment while we can.

JODY & RITA

Baccelli e Pecorino

YOUNG FAVAS, RADISHES, AND FRESH PECORINO

Baccelli, or fava in their pods, are shucked just before serving. Eat fava beans raw when theyre very small and tender.

SERVES FOUR

2 spring onions

1 cups/240 grams blanched, peeled fava beans

7 fresh mint leaves

5 fresh basil leaves

5 tablespoons/70 ml extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon/15 grams lemon juice

piece of young pecorino Romano cheese, about 4 ounces/120 grams

10 small radishes, very thinly sliced

salt

pepper

Thinly slice the spring onions and soak in cold water for a minute or two. Drain in a fine-mesh sieve and shake off the excess water. Toss the onion slices with the fava beans in a bowl. Tear the mint and basil into large pieces, leaving the smaller leaves whole.

Add the olive oil and lemon juice to the bowl and toss lightly to coat the spring onions and fava beans. Crumble the cheese and toss with the radishes and herbs into the salad. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with remaining dressing.

Pecorino Romano

There are many types of pecorino in Italyalmost every region and town make sheeps milk cheese their own way. For me, the best one is a young Tuscan pecorino (aged for thirty days if you can find it, or up to sixty days). Its mild. If you like cheese, you can eat it more or less with anythingfavas, salami, sliced pears, or honey. (Pecorino with honey or pears are among my favorite combinations.)

When Jody and I use an aged pecorino, we create a rough texture by digging into the cheese with a fork or the tip of a paring knife, or even crumbling it with our hands, to break off pebble-sized pieces of varying sizes. RITA

How to choose, cook, and peel favas

Fresh fava pods will have a slight shine and, if youre lucky, even some leaves attached. Choose the smallest and greenest ones from the pile; avoid very large, lumpy podsthe large, yellowed fava beans inside will be starchy. Blackened scratches on the pods are often unavoidable and dont affect the beans inside. When buying, estimate that 1 pound/454 grams will yield about cup/100 grams of shelled favas.

Keep favas in their pods until youre ready to use them. Inside the pod, each fava bean is wrapped in a tight and chewy skin. Peel it off to find the little bean inside. This is fiddly work, but we think its worth it for the sublimely tender bean inside each skin. Finding young favas you can eat raw is rare. However, if you do, they are so tender you dont need to take off the outer skin, nor do you need to blanch them. We blanch the beans to make it easier to take off the skinits not to cook the beans.

To blanch, drop shucked favas into a saucepan of boiling water for less than one minute. Cool on a plate before peeling off the outer skin by tearing the top. Pop out the bright green bean.

Insalata di Fave

FAVAS, ESCAROLE, AND MINT

This salad is one of our spring staples. We add leaves of butter lettuce and favas to crisp escarole to temper its bitterness.

SERVES TWO

1 tablespoon/15 ml lemon juice

1 small garlic clove, finely grated

salt

chili flakes, optional

2 teaspoons water

3 tablespoons/45 ml extra-virgin olive oil