Fruit, vegetables and pulses

Carpino broad bean

Carpino broad bean: small, dried, and threshed by horses on the farmyard floor

In the inland Gargano, on Carpino's chalky clay ground, this small-seeded broad bean grows with no fertiliser or sprays, rotated with durum wheat. In July the sheaves, dried in the field, are spread on a round threshing floor where horses walking in circles tread out the seeds. A PAT product and a Slow Food Presidium.

• Small, flattened seeds, green when picked and fading over time to the colour of sand
• A rich pulse: protein content can exceed 25 per cent
• Well dried in the sun it keeps for a long time, so the dried bean is cooked all year round

How to enjoy it. Skinned and soaked for about ten hours, it cooks slowly in a clay pot until it becomes a purée. Serve it over boiled chicory or other wild greens with extra virgin olive oil: this is Puglia's classic fave e cicorie.

Production areas

Apulia

Season

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