Fava Bean and Ricotta Crostini

Here's a delicious way to eat fava beans.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. fava beans

1 garlic glove

1 loaf french bread

1/2 c fresh ricotta

glug of nice olive oil

salt and pepper

1) Remove fava beans from their outer pods. Boil a small pot of water. When the water is boiling, add the fava beans. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from water and drain. As the fava beans cool, slip the outer shell off the fava beans again, leaving you with a bowl of brilliant green colored beans.

2) Turn on broiler. Slice the bread into 1/2 in. thick slices. Broil the bread until lightly toasted.  When it comes out of the oven rub a raw garlic glove over the toasted bread.

3) Scoop about 1 tablespoon of ricotta onto each piece of bread. Top with about 1 tablespoon of fava beans. Repeat for all slices of bread, or until you run out of ingredients. Lightly drizzle olive oil over the whole set of crostinis. Liberally salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Yield: 6-8 crostinis