Every birthday dinner, we serve broad bean purée accompanied by sautéed chicory.
The recipe is not Roman, but we like sautéed chicory immensely.
This recipe was given to my mother by her friend Lilli.

Broad Bean Purée (Macco di fave)

  • Preparation time: 90 minutes
  • For 4 servings
  • Difficulty: Easy recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 500 g hulled, dried broad beans
  • Vegetable broth to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • 1 piece of fresh chili
  • 1 kg chicory
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Salt to taste
  1. Instructions
  2. Clean and wash the chicory well.
  3. Put the dried broad beans in a large saucepan with cold water and boil until they become very soft. This will take about forty minutes to one hour.
  4. Place the broad beans in a pan with some oil and a couple of ladles of vegetable broth. Cook for about ten minutes, adding more broth if necessary. Blend everything with an immersion blender.
  5. Meanwhile, in a pan of boiling water, boil the chicory for a few minutes. Drain it. Briefly sauté the chicory in a pan with garlic, oil, and a piece of fresh chili. Salt.
  6. Serve the broad bean purée in a deep dish and arrange the sautéed chicory and a drizzle of good oil on top.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • You need to buy dried, hulled broad beans.
  • For the vegetable broth, look here
  • If you want the chicory to be a bright green, place it in a container filled with ice water to fix the chlorophyll once it has been drained after boiling.
  • If the purée is too liquid, just cook it until the excess water evaporates.