Macco di San Giuseppe di Favette e Finocchio Selvatico

Place the drained split fava beans in a heavy, wide pot and add the cold water, ensuring the beans are covered generously so that as the liquid reduces they remain submerged throughout the long cook. Add the wild fennel fronds and the guanciale if using, then set over a medium flame, uncovered — the pot remains open throughout so that the steam carries away the beans' earthy, grassy edge and the liquid concentrates steadily. Bring to a steady simmer; the liquid will turn cloudy and pale green within the first 15 minutes.

Maintain a gentle but active simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the beans settling and scorching on the base of the pot. Do not cover the pot and do not blend — the beans must dissolve entirely of their own accord into the cooking water, because only that slow, open dissolution builds the characteristic macco: a cohesive, slightly granular mass that a blender would flatten into a different, wrong texture. This is where the dish lives or dies: at 1 hour 30 minutes the pot should hold a thick purée with no whole beans remaining; if the macco is too stiff to spoon freely, add cooking water a ladleful at a time and stir through, then remove the guanciale if it was used.

Season with fine sea salt now and only now, because salt added earlier would have tightened the outer skin of each bean and slowed the dissolution the dish depends on. Stir, taste, and adjust. The purée should be thick but fluid enough to settle slowly in the bowl — not stiff, not liquid.

Lay a slice of toasted country bread in each warmed bowl, then ladle the macco over and around the bread so the bread softens into the purée rather than floating above it. Drizzle each portion with the extra-virgin olive oil; the surface should gleam with a thin green-gold film and the scent of raw oil and anise should rise immediately.