Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

For the salad

3 pounds fava beans
1 red onion, cut in half and sliced thin
3 cups arugula
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

For the pecorino lemon zest

¼ cup fresh mint
1 tablespoon lemon zest
¼ cup pecorino, freshly grated
1 tablespoon black pepper, cracked

DIRECTIONS

Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set aside.

To prep and cook fava beans, pull on the stem of the pod and pull to open. If a pod doesn’t open easily, use a paring knife and slit the bean pod open, exposing the spongy insides and the beans. Remove the beans and discard the pods. In a pot of salted boiling water, blanch the beans for 2 minutes. Remove the beans with a slotted spoon immediately plunge into prepared bowl of ice water. With your fingers, and helped with the tip of a paring knife is necessary, slip the outer skin off each bean, revealing the inner bright green fava. Discard the outer skin.

In a medium size bowl, combine fava beans, red onion, arugula and mint. In a separate small bowl combine lemon juice and zest and olive oil. Drizzle over salad, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Serve with pecorino lemon zest.

For the pecorino lemon zest

In a small mixing bowl combine the ingredients and mix well, adding more cracked black pepper and lemon zest according to preference.