A Spoonful of Sugar

Maro is a Ligurian sauce of fresh broad (fava) beans, mint, olive oil and Pecorino cheese. Like pesto it can be used in several ways. Here, I've used it as a spread on bruschetta, but it can also be used to dress pasta, stirred into soups or used as a condiment alongside boiled or roasted meats.

You're supposed to use fresh broad beans for this recipe, but the ones at the supermarket looked a bit ropey so I opted to use frozen podded beans which were probably much fresher than the ones in the vegetable department, anyway.

Shelling beans was a new experience for me and I was shocked to discover how thick the skin surrounding the beans themselves were. I pinched at loose bits of pale green bean skin, tore, then popped out the bright green and tender beans into a fresh bowl.

Once I got into the swing of things it went quite quickly and I could almost picture myself doing this whilst sitting in the shade of an olive tree at a beautiful wooden table in Liguria. Alas, the sound of a bus driving past jolted me back to reality.

A quick blitz in the mini food processor with the rest of the ingredients and the maro was made. It tasted great straight away, but I decided to chill it for a while to let the flavours blend.

When hunger struck, I sliced up some pain de campagne--alas, no ciabatta--rubbed it with some garlic and olive oil then toasted it in the oven to form bruschetta. When cooled slightly, I piled the gloriously green paste on top of each piece, drizzled some extra-virgin olive oil all over and then tucked in.

The maro was smooth and creamy with an initial hit of garlic, then the fresh flavour of the beans. I was only going to have a couple of bruschetta but I wound up going back for more and more... The lasting impression on my palate was the cooling sensation of mint. I'm not normally a fan of mint in savoury foods, however, this worked somehow and I think it is the cooling/refreshing feeling after each mouthful that made the maro absolutely addictive for me.