P
Italian · Basilicata
Cicoria Ripassata con Fave Secche e Olio Nuovo Lucano
The Lucana version of the ancient pairing of wild chicory and dried broad beans (fave e cicoria) — found across southern Italy but with distinct regional character here. Split dried fave are soaked overnight and boiled until they collapse into a thick, rough purée with no water remaining. Wild chicory (or cultivated catalogna) is blanched in heavily salted boiling water then plunged into ice water to set its colour and remove excess bitterness. The greens are then ripassata — briefly tossed in a pan with olive oil, crushed garlic and dried peperoncino over high heat. The fave purée is spooned into the base of a warmed bowl; the ripassata cicoria is mounded on top; the whole is flooded with newly pressed Lucana olive oil (olio nuovo) with its characteristic peppery finish. Served with toasted cracked-wheat bread.
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I
The Market List
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400 g
split dried fave (broad beans)
soaked overnight in cold water
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
800 g
wild chicory or cultivated catalogna
trimmed
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
4
garlic cloves
crushed
Your own market
2
dried peperoncino
whole or crumbled
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
80 ml
olio nuovo (new-harvest Lucana extra-virgin olive oil)
for finishing; peppery and grassy
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
30 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
for the ripassata
Your own market
4 slices
cracked-wheat bread
toasted
Your own market
1 tsp
fine sea salt
for the fave cooking water — added only after the purée has formed
Your own market
20 g
coarse sea salt
for the blanching water
Your own market
II
The Method
1
Drain the soaked fave and place them in a heavy saucepan. Cover generously with cold unsalted water. Bring to a vigorous boil, skim the foam, then reduce to a steady simmer. Cook without any salt, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until every bean has collapsed and no distinct pieces remain and all free water has been absorbed or evaporated into a thick, rough purée. Reserve a ladleful of the cooking water before the pan dries completely.
2
This is where the dish lives or dies. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it heavily — the water should taste distinctly of the sea. Add the chicory and blanch until the stems yield to gentle pressure but the leaves retain a faint resilience; the colour must remain a deep, vivid green. Lift immediately and plunge into a large bowl of ice water. Hold for two minutes, then drain and press gently to expel excess water.
3
Set a wide pan over high heat until it smokes. Add the olive oil for ripassata, the crushed garlic and the dried peperoncino. The garlic should colour at the edges within seconds — it must not brown deeply. Add the drained chicory and toss constantly for no more than two minutes. The greens should be glossy, fully coated in the garlic oil and heated through; they must not soften further or release liquid into the pan.
4
Season the fave purée with salt and, if it has stiffened, loosen it with a little of the reserved cooking water. Spoon it into the base of warmed shallow bowls. It should settle into a rough, textured mound — not smooth, not pourable.
5
Mound the ripassata chicory over the fave purée. Flood the bowl with olio nuovo. The oil should pool visibly around the purée. Serve immediately with toasted cracked-wheat bread. Taste for salt and heat at the table.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Freshly pressed olio nuovo from a single Lucana estate, peppery enough to catch the throat; wild chicory foraged from open hillsides; dried fave from a named Basilicatan producer.
02
Estate — A recent-harvest southern Italian extra-virgin olive oil with declared provenance and marked peppery character; cultivated catalogna from a specialist greengrocer; good-quality split dried fave.
03
Market — Any fruity, assertive extra-virgin olive oil; cultivated chicory or escarole from a general market; split dried fave of reliable origin.
04
House — Standard supermarket extra-virgin olive oil; cavolo nero or mature spinach as a substitute green; any dried split broad bean available — the dish retains its structure but loses the peppery identity that defines it.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The fave purée shows no distinct bean pieces and no standing water in the pan — it holds its shape on a spoon with a rough, coarse texture.
◇Touch. A blanched chicory stem bends under gentle finger pressure but does not collapse; the leaf offers the faintest resistance.
◇Smell. During ripassata, the pan smells of hot garlic oil and warm greens — no raw-water steam, no scorched note.
◇Sight. The finished bowl shows three distinct layers: pale ochre purée at the base, deep green greens above, and a visible pool of golden-green olio nuovo flooding the rim.
◇Where it lives or dies. The blanching water must be heavily salted and the chicory removed while it retains faint resilience — under-salted water produces flat, limp greens that no amount of ripassata can recover.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Agave spirit
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
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