We've all heard the jokes.

Beans are great.

Fabulous source of fiber and protein.

But don't they leave us a little... musical?

Let's learn how easy and delicious it is to add beans to your diet and make them the superstar of the table.

Today on Christina Cooks.

Funding for Christina Cooks is provided by: GreenOnyx, producers of Wanna Greens A tiny but nutrient dense fresh green vegetable.

Wanna Greens can be added to any meal, snack or dessert.

Fresh greens.

Wanna Greens.

Additional funding provided by Finamill.

The flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

Finamill.

And by Mauviel, creators of copper, stainless and steel carbon cookware for professional and home cooks.

A story of passion since 1830.

And by Suzanne█s Specialties Offering a full line of alternative, vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne█s Specialties.

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And by Jonathan█s Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Yeah.

Will they all be delicious?

Yeah.

Let's talk beans.

Beans are, as the saying goes, the life of the party.

It's protein rich, complex, carbohydrate rich, gives you all the energy you need, helps build muscle.

You can't beat beans, but there's beans.

And then there's fava beans, which are an ancient crop specially grown in Puglia.

You can find them in other areas of the world.

We get them in California, in the US, but they are like the queen of beans in Puglia in the spring.

They look like this.

And what you do is you break off the end and you peel the shell open to reveal fresh fave inside.

Now, in the springtime, we eat these like edamame with a little olive oil and salt on our fingers, and it's the most amazing snack.

Once the season is over, they take fave and they dry them and split them so that they cook a little more quickly.

And split.

Fava beans are kind of like the way they really cook them in Puglia, in two ways specifically, a soup like we're going to make today, and pureed fava with sauteed greens, which we'll be making later with a wonderful restaurant chef.

So let's start the soup, so we can talk about fava beans, Matera and all things fava beans.

So we're gonna take some extra virgin olive oil.

Some diced onion.

Onions are wonderful to cut because they kind of guide you in the way that they want to be cut.

You slice along the sort of grain of them and then cut across, and that's a dice.

So once the onions are in the pan, we can turn the heat on.

Now, fava beans are extremely special for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is their protein.

In 100g of dried fava, there's 25g of protein.

That's a lot.

And 100g of dried beans will yield about a cup of cooked beans, right?

A half cup becomes a cup.

So it's amazing.

They also are really high in magnesium, cholesterol lowering compounds, And in bigger picture thinking, what they're really famous for is nitrogen locking in soil.

And what that means is the soil becomes healthier.

So farmers in Puglia grow fave as rotations between other crops to keep the soil healthy.

It's an amazing thing.

They are the oldest cultivated bean, so you can't beat that.

Some hot chili flakes.

No salt because it's a bean soup and we want the beans to get tender.

We're going to saute the onions just until they become translucent.

So while I do that, let me talk to you about Matera.

Basilicata, right over the border from Puglia into the region of Basilicata.

And it's famous for being an ancient city of cave dwellings.

And what they were, were three level houses.

On the bottom, they stored food because it was cool.

In the middle, they stored the animals because the animals kept the people on the top level warm.

The last family was moved out of Matera in the 1970s because they had no facilities, no running water, no electricity.

And it finally occurred to some people in power that maybe this wasn't the most sanitary way to live.

So Matera has become kind of a living museum, and so it's an education in how people lived in the most rudimentary ways and still survived and even thrived.

So I can't wait for you to see it.

It's the most amazing place.

Okay, onions are ready.

That's it.

That's all that goes into the soup.

Onions, garlic, chili flakes.

The next thing to go in are soaked fava beans, and their soaking water.

And then we will add water to them to just cover.

When you're cooking beans or a soup, you want to add water to, just cover your ingredients.

If you need to add more water later, you can, but you want to add just enough water to cover because the less water that the soup or the stew cooks in, the more flavorful the ingredients.

The more water, the more watery.

So we're going to cover this because you cook your soups covered because you don't want to lose anything to steam, because soup█s job is, remember... to relax the digestive tract.

If the soup is all cooking away, it doesn█t do that job so well.

And you don█t touch it now for 20 to 25 minutes on medium low heat, let it soup all on its own, and in 25 minutes we'll have a nice, beautiful soup.

And that's not all.

After 25 minutes, After 25 minutes, your soup is beautiful.

The beans are creamy, almost on their own.

Now many people puree the soup to make it smooth.

I am not a big, huge fan of pureed soups, and fava beans, as they cook, what I've noticed is just stirring them almost purees the soup perfectly.

It's a little bit of a coarse puree, but it's gorgeous.

So now we'll season it first with some salt.

Some cracked black pepper.

It's a really simple soup, so your seasoning really counts.

And we'll let this simmer.

Once you season it with salt and pepper.

You want to let it simmer for a couple more minutes.

And then the finishing touch.

Now we'll take some extra virgin olive oil.

Some chili flakes.

Turn on the heat as low as we can and we're going to quickly, quickly, quickly saute some escarole.

Escarole is another bitter green.

Very good for the liver.

Used very often in Italian cooking.

And we're just going to slice it into ribbons.

And this is going to become the garnish if you will, to the soup.

As soon as it wilts gets stirred into the finished soup.

And it is magnificent.

And we're going to saute this just till it wilts.

A little salt which will help it to wilt.

Now escarole is a very delicate bitter green.

Good for the liver.

Makes us happier campers.

And when you're a happier camper, everyone around you is a happier camper.

But escarole is not a green you can walk away from while it's cooking because it's beautiful and bright green one second, and, well, not so much the next.

So you want to stay with it.

You want to cook it until it's just wilted.

It's sort of the fava beans are like the background and the escarole is the star of the show.

So you see how this is wilted already?

It's done.

This is finished by the time we put the soup in the bowl.

The escarole will be ready to go.

So we're going to bowl this up.

You can see the beans have really broken up.

And it's a nice coarse texture.

Really simple soup.

Fava beans are very mild in their flavor but still.

So, rich tasting, creamy tasting.

You don't need a ton of veg with them.

Escarole on top.

A really good pile of escarole.

And you have an absolutely perfect first course.

And now we are off to Matera to meet the head of Slow Foods, Franceso Linzalone, who's going to talk to us about ancient food, fava beans, history and all sorts of amazing things about the way they ate in Basilicata.

(Italian music plays) Wow.

Oh, wow.

Francesco.

Ciao!

-Ciao, Christina.

-Buongiorno!

-Wow.

-How are you?

Welcome, welcome to Matera.

I am amazed.

That's how I am.

Where, Francesco, exactly are we?

This is a beautiful place where we are underground.

Underground is covered in this kind of rock.

Look.

The rock is called calcarinite.

It is a limestone.

At what year did people live here, do you imagine?

The date is... mille█sei█cento.

Okay.

-1600s.

-Yes, 1600.

Yes.

And we have the proof of this.

The proof of this.

Because there are inscription on this rock with these dates.

Okay, let's talk food.

Let's go.

Okay.

What have we here?

-This is quite... -Yes, yes, we have legumes.

Okay.

Matera█s legumes and Basilicata legumes.

Okay.

These are some just a small sample of the the world of legumes in here.

-So many.

Okay.

Yes.

Yes.

There are many .

That people, that █ growing the land, had made the selection of the, the kinds of the varieties of the, the most (speaking italian) -Adaptable?

-Adaptable to that place for the So they chose the bean based on their microclimate, where they were specifically.

People that, living in, in, in the, in the, compagne - in the countryside.

Countryside.

Yes.

They say that where it is possible to have chickpeas -Chickpeas.

it is not possible to have, beans.

And this is because of the, -This ground, the soils... -The minerals... the fertility of the soil is different from this -to cover... -All the different kinds.

So which is the most ancient bean on this table?

-I think it might be... -It█s impossible!

is it this one?

Because this one I have never seen.

You never see?

-No, -This is for us, for Matera, This is it.

A must.

Really!

-Is this... -Cicerchia.

-Cicerchia?

-Yes.

This is different mix, In the shape from...

Sort of chickpeas, sort of fave.

-Wow!

-Yes.

And now people doesn't cook.

You don█t see these very much?

Not very much.

But, in last years, there is a new use of this.

And I've also never seen this fave.

Oh, yes.

Yes, we have two.

We have just two kinds of fave.

This is a black violet.

This is the one I see in the United States.

-Yes, yes.

-This is normal for us.

And these have more minerals?

A different kind of minerals.

No no no no no no, this kind is another variety.

The genus inside.

Okay.

And the most common being here?

(laughing) Use these for puree of fave?

Yes, yes.

This is peeled and (speaking Italian) A split?

This is the, the typical food in all the, the year for, for man in Matera because (speaking Italian) Because we live in a big land, This, we we, we are a -We share with Puglia people.

-Right.

Okay.

Because we.

Ahh, because you grow so many and it's big.

(speaking Italian) High?

Highland?

Okay.

Higher land, yes.

In which there is the same rocks.

There is, the same ground and the same using other, growing plants and cooking.

-Okay.

-Of course.

And one of this there is an international... (speaking Italian) -USA.

-Yes.

-And we use puree... -Puree of fave.... -combined with... -Wild chicory.

The wild chicory.

Si.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) There is a recipe...

I want to see this, because there is a combination, A recipe with the fave, with the skin... With the skin.

-with cime di rapa - a soup.

-It is a soup.

-But these are so hard.

-Yes, yes.

-So you cook a long time.

Yes, but there are many kinds of this, fava.

And the difference, and the most... the the best are, the beans that have, -thin skin.

-Thin skin.

-This is what.... -Francesco.

I have gotten a great education about the beans of Basilicata.

Francesco, grazie mille!

I am off to cook fava with chicory.

And we eat it together!

I would love to eat together.

-Ciao.

-Okay, okay.

So we're off.

I had so much fun with Francesco from Slow Food, talking all about the traditional beans of Basilicata, and coming back here to Locorotondo to cook the most famous traditional dish in all of Pugulia.

Pureed fava beans with wild chicoria at La Pignatta restaurant right around the corner.

Let's go.

I'm so excited to be in the kitchen of La Pignatta restaurant in Locorotondo with Chef Mina.

I have been eating in my life, so, you know, at home.

Pureed fave and chicoria most of my life.

My nonna used to make it, it's a favorite dish.

Chef Mina, Show me.

Can you show me?

These are whole fave.

Okay, so they need to be split.

So, chef, please show me.

Demonstra.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) She has toput her glasses on to show us how to do this so that she keeps all ten fingers, which would be good.

Okay, okay.

So she's cutting the very edge of the fave because fave are difficult to split unless you know what you're doing.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) If you have the right knife, she said, it's easy.

Okay.

(speaking Italian) Okay, so she cuts the edge off, splits the shell open, and in the process of splitting the shell, she splits the bean.

Because we need the bean to be split to cook more quickly.

Okay, (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) Okay, so after the beans are split, they go into cold water for 2 to 3 hours before cooking, as long as overnight.

And then - cucina - they cook.

So after the beans have soaked, they rinse them in with fresh water.

They get cooked with... (speaking Italian) One potato.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) For an hour or so until the beans are soft.

So.

These are finished.

-Finito?

Yeah.

-Finished.

(speaking Italian) Okay, so these beans.

Have been finished cooking.

So see you can see they're extremely soft and creamy and so now you mix.

They almost puree themselves.

It█s incredible.

So she said just keep mixing.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) What happens nexxt?

(speaking Italian) Like this?

In this?

Okay.

So now we take, It's a right.

It's an old fashioned ricer or something my grandmother used use to make puree, tomatoes.

Okay.

So now they go into.

The ricer.

Okay.

Because they're, they almost pureed themselves.

But if you want them to be silky smooth then you have to put them through this.

And you just do this until they all go through.

So you just going to put them through this ricer.

Because even though they almost puree by themselves, you want to puree them until they're silky, silky smooth like this (speaking Italian) So then.

(speaking Italian) Now we add a little salt.

(speaking Italian) Thank you.

So now you have this silky smooth.

We've added a little bit of salt but you have this silky puree.

And now we add.

Oh yeah.

Olio - good extra virgin Pugliese olive oil.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) So now she says you just mix this and we're going to add a couple of vegetables to it to give it some.

Something special.

And now we're adding some chopped chicoria, chicory.

Go ahead to give it to give the puree some interest And now we mix again.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) there.

See.

-And it gets like this.

Okay?

-Okay.

Now you have some chicory mixed in with the fave.

Okay, Senora.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) So now we can make the plate.

(speaking Italian) (speaking Italian) So now Mina█s going to make the, how the final plate should look.

So you have the pureed fava beans and chicoria.

This is a lovely protein and veggie-rich dish.

(speaking Italian) So now we add some sauteed chicory here.

Just sauteed with a little olive oil and salt.

This dish is so simple and classic Pugliese.

(speaking Italian) Some olives.

Some roasted peppers.

Local peppers.

(speaking Italian) And then some raw onion to give you a little bit of bite.

And then.

You finish the whole dish Con olio?

Con olio.

Okay.

Bellissima.

What a wonderful dish.

This is the most wonderful main dish that can be put in front of any plant based eating person, or any carnivore or any person on earth.

There's no one who wouldn't enjoy this dish.

Chef Mina, grazie mille!

Grazie.

It was amazing, amazing, amazing.

so what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board and I'll see you next time.

on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.

Funding for Christina Cooks is provided by: GreenOnyx, producers of Wanna Greens Organic and sustainable, Wanna Greens are grown in a completely closed, indoor environment.

At Wanna Greens, we believe in the benefits of fresh greens for people and the planet.

Additional funding provided by Finamill.

The flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

Finamill.

And by Mauviel, creators of copper, stainless and steel carbon cookware for professional and home cooks.

A story of passion since 1830.

And by Suzanne█s Specialties Offering a full line of alternative, vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne█s Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathan█s Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at christinacooks.com and by following Christina on social media.

Learn how to add delicious plant based dishes to your daily diet with the companion cookbook VegEdibles.

Featuring more than 80 easy-to-make recipes To order your copy for $32.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815 or visit christinacooks.com.

Add “Back to the Cutting Board” and get both books for $55.95 plus handling.