A recipe for a Spring picnic: muffins with fava beans, salami, and pecorino

A filling, delicious snack to serve as an aperitivo, to stash in your lunch box, or bring to a picnic.

Fresh fava beans in their pods are the perfect picnic food, as they come with their natural packaging. You can simply shell and eat them as they are, or accompany them with a pinch of salt.

In Spring, especially during the Easter Monday or May Day picnics, the fresh fava beans are usually enjoyed along with a thick slice of pecorino cheese: I prefer it fresh, when it has still a distinct milk taste.

These are two flavors that are often found together in the Tuscan tradition, a happy marriage used also in first courses and side dishes. Add a few slices of salami, and here you have a quintessential Tuscan picnic.

RECIPE - Muffins with fava beans, salami, and pecorino

Use the typical ingredients of a Tuscan picnic and turn them into Spring muffins, a filling, delicious snack to serve as an aperitivo, to stash in your lunch box, or bring to your next picnic.

Makes 20 mini muffins or 9 regular muffins

• 150 grams/1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 8 grams/½ tablespoon of baking powder

• 30 grams/⅓ cup Parmigiano Reggiano, grated

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 2 eggs

• 125 grams/½ cup whole yogurt

• 50 ml/3½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 50 grams/2 oz of fava beans or peas, fresh or frozen

• 70 grams/2.5 oz salami, diced

• 30 grams/1 oz fresh pecorino cheese, cubed

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and grease the muffin molds, or line them with baking cups.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl whisk the eggs with yogurt and olive oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon just enough to combine. Now add the fava beans and salami.

Spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin mold and push a pecorino cube into each muffin.

Transfer the muffins to the hot oven and bake them until puffed up and golden brown, about 12 minutes for the mini muffins and 25 for the regular muffins.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Variations:

• If you want to make these muffins vegetarians, remove the salami and substitute it with the same amount of semi-dried cherry tomatoes.

• Fava beans, edamame or peas work just as well, and they can be fresh or frozen. If using them frozen, add them directly into the batter without thawing or cooking them first.

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Watch the replay of March Cook Along, when we cooked the muffins along with two more recipes for an Italian Aperitivo:

• Torta di ceci from Livorno, chickpea flour cake, with spring onions, a traditional street food from the Tuscan coast, naturally gluten free and vegan (paywalled);

• a punchy sweet and sour tomato sauce with capers and anchovies from Garfagnana, to slather on bread or serve as a dip with raw vegetables (paywalled);