Many cooks underestimate the potency of the humble broad bean. An ancient member of the pea family, broad beans have a nutty taste and buttery texture all of their own.
In the culinary world, Vicia faba is known as a broad bean, fava bean or faba bean. Given the amount of nutrition they contain, these energy-boosting, heart-healthy legumes make an excellent addition to one’s diet.
To get you better acquainted with favas, Slent Farm’s Michela and Attilio Dalpiaz are hosting an Ayama Broad Beans Festival in the Voor Paardeberg on Sunday, 11 November 2018 from 12pm to 5pm. This Ayama Wines event includes a 4-course lunch, with wine pairing with all courses.
Of Italian origin, the Dalpiaz will highlight the legacy of broad beans in Italy, where the beans rose to prominence after Sicily experienced a failure of all crops except for these beans. Keeping the population from starvation, they subsequently became traditional on Saint Joseph's Day altars in many Italian communities.
In Rome, on the first of May, Roman families also traditionally eat fresh fava beans with Pecorino Romano cheese. In Liguria, fava beans are loved raw, and consumed fresh in early spring as the first product of the garden, alone or with fresh Pecorino Sardo or with local salami. In some Central Italian regions, a once-popular and recently rediscovered fancy food is the bagiana - a soup of fresh or dried fava beans seasoned with onions and beet leaves stir-fried, before being added to the soup, in olive oil and lard.
Along with chickpeas, lentils and peas, broad beans are amongst the oldest of all cultivated crops. They are thought to have entered the eastern Mediterranean diet in about 6,000 BC - not long after the invention of agriculture.
The popularity and longevity of these legumes has been sustained by their health benefits. They’re one of the top most high-folate foods around, making them useful for energy metabolism, for nervous system support, for healthy red blood cells, and are a good fit for moms-to-be. They’re also a great lean protein choice with lots of fibre, and contain vitamin K, vitamin B6, zinc, copper, iron, magnesium.
The Ayama Broad Beans Festival will showcase the cultivation of broad beans - served the tasty Italian way.
4-course lunch, wine pairing with all courses.
R350,00 all inclusive.
Limited to 50 people attending.
To book, see http://ayamateca.co.za
For information, contact: +27 (0)21 8698313, info@slentfarms.com, see http://ayama.co.za/
