To frie Beanes in a pan
Take Beanes, Sage, Onions and Figges as aforesaid, with other good hearbes, and mingle them together, then frie them in a frying pan with oyle, and make it like a pancake, and when it is baked take it out, and cast spice upon it.
(from Epulario, a 1598 English translation of the original Italian text)
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 8 semi-dry figs, finely chopped
- 1 cup cooked fava beans
- 1 tsp dried, powdered sage
- 1 tsp dried parsley leaves
- 1/4 cup olive oil (for frying)
- 1 tsp mixed spices (I used pre-made poudre fort)
Put all ingredients except oil and spices in a bowl and mash with a potato masher until there are no whole beans visible and you can form a ball or patty from the mixture. If it seems too dry, add a tablespoon or two of water.
Take small handfuls of the mixture and form into patties. Don't make them too thin or they will break up. Shallow-fry in the oil until browned on both sides.
Sprinkle with spices and serve hot.
This recipe makes about 6 patties.
Substitution notes:
I used dried herbs because I didn't have fresh handy at the time. I think the dried sage works very well in this recipe, and I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to get fresh sage next time.
If you don't have access to figs, dates would work quite well as a substitute. I used semi-dry figs, which are sticky and slightly squishy, a bit like dried prunes are. If I used fully dried figs I would have chopped them even finer, added a little more water to the mix, and let it sit for a while before making the patties. I don't think fresh figs would work very well for this recipe.
I used poudre fort that I'd made earlier for the sprinkling of spices called for in the recipe. My poudre fort contains about 50% pepper and a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, galangal, mace, cloves, etc. If you don't have anything like this easily to hand, I'd recommend pepper, cinnamon, mace and cloves. You want it to have a bit of bite to it.