Fava Bean and Ricotta Toasts

Unfortunately yesterday was not a good day, so Dylan and I decided on ice cream for dinner. However, we were really wanting to make something with these fava beans and chose to do a late evening snack while we watched a movie.

This is a relatively simple dish and the only time consuming task about it is the shelling, cooking, rinsing and peeling of the fava bean's themselves. In fact, if I hadn't had Dylan to help me with this, I might still be standing at the kitchen counter peeling each one of those individual beans! Once this was out of the way though, everything else was easy.

I sliced a loaf of fresh country bread into 8 slices and laid them out on a baking sheet. These were baked at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes, just until toasted.  Next I took halved garlic cloves and rubbed them all over one side of each slice of toast. Then I spread a spoonful of ricotta cheese on each slice and topped with the fava beans, a drizzle of olive oil, finely sliced basil, sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

This was delicious. I will say though, if you decide to make this at home, roast the garlic prior to spreading it all over the toast slices. Not only will this give it a wonderful garlic flavor without the harshness of the raw garlic, but your body (and your friends, family and significant others) will thank you for it later. I spent an entire night laying next to my daughter who had eaten 5 of these garlicky treats and insisted on breathing on me all night long!
Lesson learned.