Puglia — widespread throughout the region, especially Salento and Bari provinces
The iconic cucina povera dish of Puglia: a silky purée of dried fava beans topped with sautéed wild chicory in olive oil. The dried fave are skinned (traditionally the dried split fave that have already been halved and husked), soaked overnight, then cooked slowly with water, salt, and olive oil until they collapse into a smooth, almost polenta-like consistency. Wild chicory (cicoria selvatica) is boiled until tender, then passed through olive oil with garlic and peperoncino. The two components are served together but never mixed — the white fava purée and dark green chicory side by side is the canonical presentation.
Earthy, starchy, deeply savoury fave purée against the herbal bitterness of cicoria; the olive oil is not a dressing but a structural component that gives the purée its characteristic richness and sheen
{"Use dried split fave (fave decorticate) — skinned dried fava beans that cook to a purée without husks","Soak overnight, drain, and start in cold water — this draws out the remaining skin fragments and bitter compounds","Cook at a bare simmer with a generous pour of olive oil — the oil emulsifies into the purée as the fave break down","Do not blend or pass through a sieve — the purée should be textured, not perfectly smooth; stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon achieves the right consistency","The chicory must be a bitter wild variety — cultivated chicory or radicchio gives a fundamentally different dish"}
{"A piece of dried potato added during cooking (a Puglian tradition) absorbs excess water and thickens the purée","The fave purée must be finished with a significant pour of raw olive oil (5–6 tbsp per portion) stirred in just before serving","In coastal Salento, the dish is served with toasted bread (frisella or tarallo) rather than as a side to other food","Leftover purée thickens overnight and can be shaped into balls and fried the next day — a secondary preparation"}
{"Using fresh or canned fava beans — the dried, rehydrated fave give the specific starchy, earthy purée character that fresh cannot replicate","Over-seasoning the fave during cooking — the final salt adjustment should happen at the end once the purée has thickened","Blending the fave — produces a gluey, uniform paste rather than the rustic textured purée that is correct","Under-cooking the chicory — it must be soft, not al dente; the bitterness should have mellowed through blanching"}
La Cucina Pugliese (Newton Compton)